TravelGrants(up to $1,500 for one year) support postdoctoral researchers presenting a poster or paper on gambling disorders research at a scientific meeting in 2013 or 2014.
Seed Grants(up to $25,000 for one year) provide funding for small research projects that can be completed in one year.
Early Stage Investigator Grants(up to $65,000 per year for two years) are intended to help ensure that a pool of highly trained scientists is available to address the research needs of the field of gambling disorders. Eligible applicants are within 10 years of completing their terminal research degree or within 10 years of completing medical residency.
Large Grants(up to $75,000 per year for two years) provide up to two years of support for discrete, specified, circumscribed research projects related to gambling disorders.
Additionally, the NCRG will offer anAddiction Fellowship($85,000 per year for two years) to support postdoctoral research training to help prepare qualified individuals for careers that will have a significant impact on the understanding and treatment of gambling disorders. This marks the first year that the NCRG will offer this type of grant funding specifically tailored for M.D.s and Ph.Ds.
To apply, interested applicants can visit theNCRG’s online Research Centerfor the 2013 research grantsbrochure, applications and instructions. Below are the deadlines for each grant category:
Because the NCRG’s grants program is committed to a multi-disciplinary approach, grant proposals can come from investigators in various areas: psychology, psychiatry, epidemiology, public health, sociology, economics, neuroeconomics, neuroscience and other relevant disciplines. The NCRG is especially interested in research investigations that develop and test psychosocial or pharmacological approaches for prevention, intervention, treatment and relapse prevention of gambling disorders.
Have a comment or question about NCRG funding for research on gambling disorders and responsible gaming? Please leave a comment below!
https://www.icrg.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/icrg-logo-157x55-1.jpg00icrg_adminhttps://www.icrg.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/icrg-logo-157x55-1.jpgicrg_admin2013-01-16 00:00:002013-01-16 00:00:00NCRG Offers Nearly $1 Million In 2013 To Study Gambling Disorders And Adds New Fellowship Opportunity
Earlier this week, the NCRGannouncedit awarded more than $870,000 in 2012 to support 10 new research projects that will help to improve methods of diagnosis, intervention, treatment and prevention of gambling disorders.
NCRG Senior Research Director Christine Reilly commented on the research program and studies funded:
“We were extremely pleased with the innovation and rigor of the studies we funded in 2012 and are proud to increase our support by more than $325,000 over the previous year. Year after year, the NCRG’s research program continues to grow. Results from these projects will not only increase our understanding of pathological gambling, but allow us to translate research findings for effective treatment, prevention and public understanding.”
Here’s a list of the research projects that received funding from the NCRG:
Seed Grants
“A Benchmark Study for Monitoring Exposure to New Gambling Opportunities” –Sarah Nelson, Ph.D., from the Division on Addiction at Cambridge Health Alliance, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, was awarded $28,750 to establish a baseline estimate of gambling behaviors and health within Massachusetts communities. With the recent legislation expanding gaming opportunities within the Commonwealth, the results from this online survey can be used as the benchmark for a future long-term longitudinal investigation of the effect of gambling expansion on public health.
“Sequential Decision Making and Illusionary Pattern Detection in Gamblers”– Andreas Wilke, Ph.D., from Clarkson University, was awarded $28,675 to use two novel computerized decision-making models to investigate gamblers’ perceptions when they decide to continue or stop betting on sequential events. Understanding how these patterns relate to gambling decisions may reveal important aspects of gambling behavior that could lead to new screening tools.
“Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention for Problem Gambling”– Katie Witkiewitz, Ph.D., from the University of New Mexico, was awarded $28,129 to evaluate if mindfulness-based relapse prevention (MBRP), a successful aftercare treatment for other psychological and substance use disorders, could be effective in the treatment of gambling disorders. Researchers hypothesize that individuals in treatment for gambling disorders who also receive MBRP will have significantly better gambling and substance use outcomes following treatment.
Early Stage Investigator Grants
“Stress Reactivity and Risk-taking Behavior in Pathological Gambling”– Iris Balodis, Ph.D., from Yale University School of Medicine, was awarded $64,797 to describe the connection between the sympathetic nervous system’s responses when an individual is either stressed or demonstrating risk-taking behaviors. Dr. Balodis and her team will examine how reactions to stress can predict measures of behavioral control and its implication in understanding addictive behaviors and responses.
“Expanding the Study of Actual Internet Gambling Behavior: Exposure and Adaptation within a Newly Opened Market”– Heather Gray, Ph.D., from the Division on Addiction at Cambridge Health Alliance, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, was awarded $141,362 to conduct an analysis of actual Internet gambling behavior in Iceland. This work is in partnership with Reykjavik University and the University of Iceland to study gamblers and gambling behavior, “high risk” gamblers and how people adapt to new gambling opportunities.
“The Peer Group Regulates Motivational Pathways to Gambling in Youth: Implications for Early Intervention”– Jennifer L Tackett, Ph.D., from the University of Houston, was awarded $64,880 to examine the ways in which youth use motivations to seek rewards and avoid punishments in order to explain pathways toward problematic gambling behavior. The study will also examine the influence of peers on gambling behavior.
Large Grants
“Web-based Screening and Brief Intervention for Disordered Gambling Among Emerging Adults”– Mary Larimer, Ph.D., from the University of Washington, was awarded $172,500 to investigate the effectiveness of brief interventions as a treatment option for adults ages 18 to 25. Dr. Larimer will recruit participants through social media to assess their gambling behavior, and will customize and assess a screen and brief intervention and examine its effectiveness on gambling disorders among this population.
“Evaluating the Potential of Mixed-Function Serotonergic Compounds for Treatment of Gambling Disorders” –T. Celeste Napier, Ph.D., from Rush University Medical Center, was awarded $172,500 to expedite the discovery and development of effective pharmacological treatment strategies for pathological gambling. The project will use unique rat models to determine if medications used for other diseases can be repurposed for the treatment of gambling disorders. The medications they have selected to test are already known to be safe when used by humans; therefore, successful outcomes from the studies can be rapidly and safely deployed.
“Characterization of Pathological Gambling as an Addictive Disorder” –Jeremiah Weinstock, Ph.D., from Saint Louis University, was awarded $168,824 to clarify the current shift of the perception of pathological gambling from impulse control disorder to an addiction. The research team will examine the biological stress response of people with pathological gambling and compare it with those who either have no addictions or substance use disorder. Because research has shown that stress responses have been linked to alcohol use disorders, this project could further explain pathological gambling’s role as an addictive disorder.
Travel Grants
“Creating Change: A Past-Focused Model for PTSD and Addictions” –Joni Utley, Psy.D., from VA Boston Healthcare System and VA Bedford/ Boston University School of Medicine, was awarded $1,500 to present a paper at the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies conference on a new past-focused behavioral therapy model developed for comorbid post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and addictions, including pathological gambling
In 2012, the NCRG Centers of Excellence in Gambling Research at the University of Minnesota and Yale University also completed their first stage of multi-year funding. The NCRG will continue to fund the Centers of Excellence program, and the next round of funding will be announced in early 2013.
Stay connected with the NCRG here, and onFacebookandTwitter, for upcoming announcements on the NCRG’s 2013 funding opportunities.
https://www.icrg.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/icrg-logo-157x55-1.jpg00icrg_adminhttps://www.icrg.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/icrg-logo-157x55-1.jpgicrg_admin2013-01-11 00:00:002013-01-11 00:00:00NCRG Awards $870,000 For Gambling Disorder Research In 2012
In the spirit of end-of-the-year highlights lists, the NCRG staff perused the approximately 500 peer-reviewed publications released in 2012 to determine the most noteworthy studies in the field of gambling disorders and addiction.
Narrowing our list of 10 publications was a challenging task. Therefore, we decided to highlight articles that may predict future trends in research. We salute these authors and all of the investigators who are working to understand gambling disorders.
1.DSM-5 – Changes in Diagnosis for Pathological Gambling
The fifth edition of theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders(DSM-5) will delete the current “illegal acts” criterion and reduce the number of criteria required for a diagnosis of pathological gambling from five to four. This study found that DSM-5 criteria performed slightly better than otherDSM-IV-based instruments (Denis, Fatséas, & Auriacombe, 2012).
2.Resistance to Treatment
Nearly 90 percent of people diagnosed with pathological gambling do not seek treatment—and researchers are not sure why that trend occurs. Canadian researchers have taken the lead to figure out what motivates people to seek help (Suurvali, Hodgins, Toneatto, & Cunningham, 2012).
3.Imaging to See What Part of the Brain is Related to Gambling Disorders
The NCRG Center of Excellence in Gambling Research at Yale University conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study that found impulsive tendencies may be reflected in diminished activity in part of the brain associated with rewards and may represent a target for the development of treatment for gambling disorders (Balodis et al., 2012).
4.Effectiveness of Therapeutic Interventions for Gambling Disorders
The dearth of randomized control trials (RCT) of treatments for gambling disorders means that RCTs, especially those that test brief interventions, are vital to the field. This study found that two promising approaches led to reduced problems with gambling among the sample of college students (Larimer et al., 2012).
5.Internet Gambling and Corporate Responsibility Interventions
This study examined 10 years of actual Internet gambling behavior of 2,066 gamblers who triggered a responsible gaming alert system at a large international online gaming company (Gray, LaPlante, & Shaffer, 2012). The findings have important implications for designing responsible gaming strategies for the fastest-growing segment of the gaming industry.
6.Toddlers’ Temperament Predicts Later Gambling Problems
Longitudinal studies examining public health issues are important, but these types of studies that follow a group of participants over a period of time are rare in the field of gambling disorders. The 30-year cohort study found that children with “undercontrolled” temperament at three years of age were more than twice as likely to display a gambling disorder at ages 21 and 32 than children who were well-adjusted at age three (Slutske, Moffitt, Poulton, & Caspi, 2012).
7.Predicting Gambling Problems among Minority Youth
Few studies focus on the experience of African-Americans and other minorities with gambling problems. This examination of gambling among urban youth used teacher-provided data to predict the development of gambling problems four to eight years later. The study found that students categorized as highly impulsive by their teachers at ages 11-15 were twice as likely to experience gambling problems by age 19 (Liu et al., 2012).
8.Comparing Pathological Gamblers in Treatment and the Community
This study observed that problem gamblers recruited from treatment centers, versus the larger community for research, are very different. This finding suggests that researchers cannot rely only on disordered gamblers in treatment to understand the disorder (Knezevic & Ledgerwood, 2012).
9.Studying Twin Samples
Using data from a large Australian twin sample, the researchers documented the impact of genetics and the role of personality dimensions in the development of a gambling disorder (Slutske, Cho, Piasecki, & Martin, 2012).
10.Gambling Rats and their Decision-Making Processes
Animal-study researchers have discovered that rats can be used to model human gambling behavior and, therefore, can be used to study decision-making and the effects of various drugs on gambling behaviors. This study used the rodent Iowa Gambling Task to elucidate the effects of drugs on risky choice behavior (Van Enkhuizen, Geyer, & Young, 2012).
REFERENCES
Balodis, I. M., Kober, H., Worhunsky, P. D., Stevens, M. C., Pearlson, G. D., & Potenza, M. N. (2012). Diminished frontostriatal activityduring processing of monetary rewards and losses in pathological gambling.Biological Psychiatry,71(8), 749–757. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.01.006
Denis, C., Fatséas, M., & Auriacombe, M. (2012). Analyses related to the development of DSM-5 criteria for substance use related disorders: 3. An assessment of Pathological Gambling criteria.Drug and Alcohol Dependence,122(1-2), 22–27. doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2011.09.006
Gray, H. M., LaPlante, D. A., & Shaffer, H. J. (2012). Behavioral characteristics of Internet gamblers who trigger corporate responsible gambling interventions.Psychology of Addictive Behaviors,26(3), 527–535. doi:10.1037/a0028545
Knezevic, B., & Ledgerwood, D. M. (2012). Gambling severity, impulsivity, and psychopathology: comparison of treatment- and community-recruited pathological gamblers.The American Journal on Addictions,21(6), 508–515. doi:10.1111/j.1521-0391.2012.00280.x
Larimer, M. E., Neighbors, C., Lostutter, T. W., Whiteside, U., Cronce, J. M., Kaysen, D., & Walker, D. D. (2012). Brief motivational feedback and cognitive behavioral interventions for prevention of disordered gambling: a randomized clinical trial.Addiction,107(6), 1148–1158. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03776.x
Liu, W., Lee, G. P., Goldweber, A., Petras, H., Storr, C. L., Ialongo, N. S., & Martins, S. S. (2012). Impulsivity trajectories and gambling in adolescence among urban male youth.Addiction. doi:10.1111/add.12049
Slutske, W. S., Cho, S. B., Piasecki, T. M., & Martin, N. G. (2012). Genetic overlap between personality and risk for disordered gambling: Evidence from a national community-based Australian twin study.Journal of Abnormal Psychology. doi:10.1037/a0029999
Slutske, W. S., Moffitt, T. E., Poulton, R., & Caspi, A. (2012). Undercontrolled temperament at age 3 predicts disordered gambling at age 32: a longitudinal study of a complete birth cohort.Psychological Science,23(5), 510–516. doi:10.1177/0956797611429708
Suurvali, H., Hodgins, D. C., Toneatto, T., & Cunningham, J. A. (2012). Motivators for seeking gambling-related treatment among Ontario problem gamblers.Journal of Gambling Studies,28(2), 273–296. doi:10.1007/s10899-011-9268-7
Van Enkhuizen, J., Geyer, M. A., & Young, J. W. (2012). Differential effects of dopamine transporter inhibitors in the rodent Iowa gambling task : Relevance to mania.Psychopharmacology. doi:10.1007/s00213-012-2854-2
The NCRG staff, Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Board wishes you a belated Happy New Year! Last year was an exciting and productive time for the NCRG. Over the next few weeks, we’ll continue to post about the NCRG’s accomplishments and highlights from 2012.
We are already in the thick of planning and developing innovative programs for 2013! We have a busy year ahead, and we look forward to sharing our new and ongoing initiatives with you.
If you haven’t already, you can connect with the NCRG onFacebookandTwitter. There, you can stay up-to-date on the NCRG’s programs and initiatives, as well as the latest news and issues on gambling disorders and responsible gaming.
Which of the NCRG’s programs or resources do you find most helpful? What issues should the NCRG focus on this year? Leave your suggestions in the comments section below.
https://www.icrg.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/icrg-logo-157x55-1.jpg00icrg_adminhttps://www.icrg.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/icrg-logo-157x55-1.jpgicrg_admin2013-01-09 00:00:002013-01-09 00:00:00Reflecting On The Past And Looking To The Future
The NCRG on the Road blog series includes posts from NCRG staff members as they travel to fulfill the organization’s mission of funding the highest-quality research on gambling disorders and increasing public education opportunities. This post is from Nathan Smith, the NCRG’s Program Officer, about his travels on behalf of the NCRG to the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) conference in Atlanta, Ga., and the American Psychological Association conference in Orlando, Fla.
Last April, I had the opportunity to attend theAmerican Society of Addiction Medicine(ASAM) conference in Atlanta. I was particularly excited for the trip because it represented a series of firsts: the first time the NCRG connected with ASAM, my first time exhibiting at a conference for the NCRG, my first chance to personally give our new screening magnets to addiction doctors, and the first time an airline lost my suitcase (though, I could have lived without this last bit of excitement).
Even though I had never worked at a conference exhibit before, I was delighted to find that the ASAM members were very interested in gambling disorders. People who stopped to chat with me were keenly interested in all of our free educational resources, especiallyour free online webinarsandmonograph serieson recent peer-reviewed research. I was also able to talk to a lot of folks about our new magnets printed with a brief gambling screen. The magnets were designed to go on a desk or file cabinet in a doctor’s office, and the brief screen used is theBrief Biosocial Gambling Screen(BBGS) from the Division on Addictions (at Cambridge Health Alliance, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School).
I also had the opportunity to attend some of the conference sessions. The first plenary session stood out in particular because the speaker,Dr. Richard Saitzof Boston University Medical Center, promised a critique of the literature on Screening and Brief Interventions (SBI). This is a subject we, at the NCRG, areveryinterested in because we have funded three grants on SBIs in the past two years, with total cost of just over $500,000! So suffice it to say I was nervous to attend a session that could call into question our investment. However, what Dr. Saitz presented was a well reasoned plea for more deliberate study of SBIs. Most of his talk came from a recent paper he published aboutalcohol related SBIs, but the lessons are a good reminder for everyone working with health related research: don’t overstep the published research, rely on randomized controlled trials (RCTs), and do (or in our case, fund) more research. By the end of the talk I felt confident about our NCRG projects, all of which are RCTs done by researchers with good track records.
The ASAM meeting also gave me a chance to connect with people interested in our field – which is sometimes rare in larger psychological meetings. It was nice to meet new people interested in our work, but I also got to see some familiar faces. In particular, I saw Dr. Scott Teitelbaum from the University of Florida College of Medicine. You may recall that Dr. Teitelbaum spoke at the NCRG Conference on Gambling and Addiction in 2011, and Iinterviewed himfor the blog during the conference. Dr. Teitelbaum is a member of the ASAM board of directors, and it was good to see him continuing his work on treating people with addiction.
After the ASAM meeting (and tracking down my suitcase), I was off again to theAmerican Psychological Association’s(APA) annual meeting in Orlando, Fla. APA is a huge conference where researchers and clinicians from all over the world get together to learn and share ideas. APA attendees can go to sessions from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. for four days straight!
There were many sessions worth highlighting from APA, but one that stood out was a session dedicated to remembering the pioneering work ofG. Alan Marlatt. Dr. Marlatt was an addictions researcher at the University of Washington whose work on harm-reduction, brief interventions and college drinking pushed the field of addictions research into a new era and paved the way for many addiction researchers. Among the presenters was NCRG grantee Dr. Mary Larimar, who worked with Dr. Marlatt for almost 30 years and is currently applying some of Dr. Marlatt’s concepts on brief interventions for alcohol use disorders to gambling disorders.
Overall, both trips allowed me to connect with clinicians and researchers in direct and personal ways and I hope that many of the investigators I spoke with will apply for NCRG funding in the future. You never know if the poster presenter or graduate student you are speaking with will be the next Scott Teitelbaum, Mary Larimar or even the next G. Alan Marlatt. Here’s hoping for continued success for all the attendees of this year’s ASAM and APA conferences.
Did you attend any conferences this year? Which conferences should the NCRG visit next year?
https://www.icrg.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/icrg-logo-157x55-1.jpg00icrg_adminhttps://www.icrg.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/icrg-logo-157x55-1.jpgicrg_admin2012-12-20 00:00:002012-12-20 00:00:00NCRG On The Road: Asam And Apa Meetings
Do people with gambling disorders think differently than those without? The answer is yes and no. One might assume that a person who is diagnosed with a gambling disorder must predictably and consistently make harmful choices. While this thought is true, research on decision making has shown thatallhumans make consistent and predictable cognitive errors (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974). Thus, finding and exploring the differences in cognitive errors made by people with and without a gambling disorder may offer valuable insights into understanding how gambling disorders impact the decision-making process. Correcting these cognitive distortions is also an important element in several common treatments for pathological gambling, and it has been theorized that merely teaching probability and reasoning skills may be able to prevent pathological gambling before it starts (though research has not yet supported this theory).
It is extremely important for researchers who want to have a greater understanding of gambling disorders and potentially effective treatment methods to begin by studying cognitive processes and decision-making errors. A recent article in the journalPsychology of Addictive Behaviors, funded by a grant from the NCRG, examines the history and theory of cognitive distortions, how they relate to research on pathological gambling and how they affect treatment outcomes (Fortune & Goodie, 2011).
The researchers began with Kahneman and Tversky’s groundbreaking concept of “heuristics.” A heuristic is a mental shortcut that people use to make decisions with uncertain outcomes. For example, the concept of “availability” is a heuristic – people believe an event is more likely to occur if it is easier to bring to memory. A person may believe that those who play slot machines win more often than those who do not because every win on a slot machine is accompanied by lights and sounds, while losses are not accompanied by any memorable fanfare. (A complete list of the heuristics and the cognitive distortions they may cause is available in the table below (Fortune & Goodie, 2011, p. 4).)
In addition to examining common cognitive distortions, the authors also examined the effectiveness of treatment methods for pathological gambling if these misperceptions were corrected. One method, cogitative behavioral therapy (CBT), is a common talk therapy method that attempts to correct emotional and behavioral dysfunction with systematic, goal-oriented procedures. Cognitive restructuring (CR) is the process of learning to identify and challenge irrational thoughts and is often incorporated within CBT.
After examining several studies that included this method of treatment, the authors concluded that both CBT and CR produced positive outcomes for people with PG. Additionally, individual therapy sessions worked better than group therapy session. Researchers also discovered that receiving more hours of therapy did not necessarily lead to better treatment outcomes.
For more information about the article inPsychology of Addictive Behavior, visit thejournal’s website. Do you have a question or comment about this study? Leave a comment below.
References
Fortune, E. E., & Goodie, A. S. (2011). Cognitive distortions as a component and treatment focus of pathological gambling: A review.Psychology of Addictive Behaviors: Journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors. doi:10.1037/a0026422
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases.Science (New York, N.Y.),185(4157), 1124–1131. doi:10.1126/science.185.4157.1124
For college students, fall can be a time where they place bets on college football games and arrange their lineup in their fantasy football leagues. Researchers have found that about 75 percent of college students have gambled in the past year and about 6 percent have experienced problems with their gambling (Barnes, Welte, Hoffman, & Tidwell, 2010). One recent study has started to address this issue by putting to the test two promising treatment methods for college students experiencing gambling problems in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) (Larimer et al., 2011).
This study is of special interest to us at the NCRG because werecently fundedone of the researchers to develop an online version of a personalized feedback intervention, one of the treatments tested in this article, for our web-based resource about gambling on college campuses:www.CollegeGambling.org.
The study, published recently in the journalAddiction, randomly assigned 147 students who reported having at least three symptoms of gambling disorders to one of three groups. Two of the groups received treatment, with the first group attending a 60 to 90 minute in-person personalized feedback intervention (PFI). PFIs are based on the theory that most people with gambling problems think that the general public gambles as much as they do (this belief is called “perception of gambling frequency”) and when they find out that they gamble much more than most they will curb their behavior to be more in line with the average.
The second treatment group attended four to six one-hour group sessions of a cognitive behavioral intervention (CBI). The CBI gave information about topics such as relapse prevention and illusions of control (a commonly held overconfidence in one’s ability to control event outcomes), while also teaching skills like coping with triggers and assertiveness. The third group was an assessment-only control (AOC), meaning that they received no treatment but were assessed at the same times and in the same ways as the treatment groups.
The researchers found that at the six-month follow-up, subjects in both treatment groups reported significantly reducing their gambling, having fewer gambling related symptoms, and experiencing fewer gambling related negative consequences. Additionally, the PFI group experienced reduced perceptions of gambling frequency norms and the CBI group experienced reduced illusions of control. The researchers concluded that both interventions might be helpful in reducing disordered gambling among college students.
To find out more about this study, visit thejournal’s website. For more information about college gambling, visit CollegeGambling.org. Also remember to share any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below.
References
Barnes, G. M., Welte, J. W., Hoffman, J. H., & Tidwell, M.-C. O. (2010). Comparisons of gambling and alcohol use among college students and noncollege young people in the United States.Journal of American College Health: J of ACH,58(5), 443–452. doi:10.1080/07448480903540499
Larimer, M. E., Neighbors, C., Lostutter, T. W., Whiteside, U., Cronce, J. M., Kaysen, D., & Walker, D. D. (2011). Brief Motivational Feedback and Cognitive Behavioral Interventions for Prevention of Disordered Gambling: A Randomized Clinical Trial.Addiction (Abingdon, England). doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03776.x
https://www.icrg.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/icrg-logo-157x55-1.jpg00icrg_adminhttps://www.icrg.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/icrg-logo-157x55-1.jpgicrg_admin2012-12-05 00:00:002012-12-05 00:00:00New Research Tests Treatments For College Students With Gambling Disorders
What is a gambling disorder and how can it be treated? To answer those questions, the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) released the seventh volume ofIncreasing the Odds: A Series Dedicated to Understanding Gambling Disorder.Because some clinicians may not screen for gambling disorders in their patient assessments, this edition ofIncreasing the Oddscan serve as an essential training guide necessary for any clinician to recognize, understand and treat gambling disorders.
The NCRG’s monograph series provides easy-to-understand summaries of seminal peer-reviewed research on gambling disorders, as well as implications for future research and prevention efforts. This edition –“What Clinicians Need to Know About Gambling Disorders”– gives health care providers easy access the most significant research findings on the following topics:
Chapter 1:A foundational understanding of gambling disorders is critical to assessment and treatment of the disorder by clinicians. Nathan Smith focuses on the reasons why some people develop a gambling problem and covers neurobiological vulnerabilities, family history, lifestyle and co-occurring disorders.
Chapter 2:Even though youth are generally not of legal age to gamble, research has estimated that nearly 70 percent of Americans aged 14 to 21 have gambled in the past year.6 Ken C. Winters, Ph.D., and Randy Stinchfield, Ph.D., L.P., offer the latest findings on youth gambling.
Chapter 3:Dr. Stinchfield offers a critical review of the available instruments for identifying and diagnosing a gambling disorder.
Chapter 4:Jon E. Grant, M.D., J.D., M.P.H., and Brian Odlaug, M.P.H., present the latest on treatment outcomes using psychosocial interventions. They examine the various types of treatment methods that have been deemed as most effective with gambling disorders and other addictions.
Chapter 5:Marc N. Potenza, M.D., Ph.D., explains the emerging research on drug treatments for gambling disorders.
To supplement this edition ofIncreasing the Odds, the NCRG also made many of thebrief screens and assessment instrumentsavailable as free downloads on the NCRG’s website.
Download a free copy of “What Clinicians Need to Know about Gambling Disorders” and the assessment tools on theNCRG’s monograph page. There you can also find the first six volumes of the series, which address topics such as gambling and the brain, youth and gambling, the various aspects of gambling addiction recovery, gambling and public health and self-exclusion programs. Each volume of theIncreasing the Oddsseries is available as a free download.
Tell us what you think about the latest edition of the NCRG’s monograph series in the comments section below.
https://www.icrg.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/icrg-logo-157x55-1.jpg00icrg_adminhttps://www.icrg.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/icrg-logo-157x55-1.jpgicrg_admin2012-11-20 00:00:002012-11-20 00:00:00NCRG Monograph Now Available: What Clinicians Need To Know About Gambling Disorders
The NCRG blog team recently had the opportunity to interview Dr. Clayton Neighbors, director of theSocial Influences and Health Behaviors Labat the University of Houston. Last year, Dr. Neighbors wasawarded an NCRG grantto develop and test an online screening and brief intervention (SBI) aimed at reducing gambling-related problems among college students. The SBI will be included on the NCRG’s website,CollegeGambling.org, which was developed as a free resource to help colleges and universities address gambling disorders and responsible gaming on campus.
During the interview, Dr. Neighbors discussed some of the theoretical underpinnings of the study, titled ‘A Randomized Controlled Trial of Personalized Normative Feedback for Problem Gambling College Students.’ He also discussed how his previous work on an online SBI for alcohol abuse among college students will affect the development of the current project, as well as the role that gender may play in the research.
Click below for the NCRG blog team interview with Dr. Neighbors.To learn more about all of his research, please visit his website at theUniversity of Houston. For more information about the NCRG and the research that we fund, please visit theResearch Centerpage on our website.
Do you have thoughts or questions about college gambling? Please leave them in the comments section below.
https://www.icrg.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/icrg-logo-157x55-1.jpg00icrg_adminhttps://www.icrg.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/icrg-logo-157x55-1.jpgicrg_admin2012-11-14 00:00:002012-11-14 00:00:00Exclusive Interview With NCRG-Funded Researcher Dr. Clayton Neighbors
What if you could examine a group of seven-year-olds and predict which of them were more likely to someday develop a gambling disorder? A recent study in the journalAddictionattempts to do just that by analyzing the association between impulsive behavior at age seven and the development of problem gambling by adulthood. The authors found that, compared to their non-impulsive counterparts, children who exhibited impulsive behaviors at age seven were 3.09 times more likely to report problem gambling behavior in later years. Read on for more details about this investigation, the first to predict gambling problems over a 30-year span.
Previous studies have suggested that manifestations of impulsivity appear to be a key personality characteristic among adult problem gamblers. However, the value of these past investigations were limited, in part, because they depended on adult study participants’ ability to accurately recall past events. In contrast, this study tested the subjects for impulsivity at age seven, thus avoiding recall bias.
The participants in this study were children selected from the Boston, Mass., and Providence, R.I., cohorts of the Collaborative Perinatal Project (CPP). The CPP was a multicenter study of prenatal and perinatal antecedents of childhood mental, neurological and physical abilities. The participants’ development was assessed at various times up to age seven. Behavioral functioning was assessed by psychologists on a structured profile completed as part of a two-hour battery of cognitive, sensory and motor tests.
To investigate problem gambling prevalence over time, a segment of the participants from the study were sent the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) assessment as adults. This yielded 958 participants. Impulsive behaviors were substantially more common among the group with measures of lifetime problem gambling (i.e., the group that exhibited impulsive behaviors at seven years) and probable pathological gambling than those without a history of gambling problems. This finding provides evidence that the influence of early behavior problems on the development of lifetime pathological gambling is specific to measures of childhood impulsivity.
What do you think about this study? Let us know in the comments section below.
References
Shenassa, E. D., Paradis, A. D., Dolan, S. L., Wilhelm, C. S., & Buka, S. L. (In Press). Childhood impulsive behavior and problem gambling by adulthood: A 30-year prospective community-based study.Addiction.
https://www.icrg.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/icrg-logo-157x55-1.jpg00icrg_adminhttps://www.icrg.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/icrg-logo-157x55-1.jpgicrg_admin2012-11-12 00:00:002012-11-12 00:00:00Impulsivity At Age Seven Associated With Gambling Problems During Adulthood
