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As the NCAA basketball tournament hits its stride, fans around the nation are filling out brackets and possibly placing bets on the game. While gambling can be fun if you’re of legal age, it’s not a risk-free activity. For some college students, gambling for fun can turn into a serious problem and have a negative impact on their lives.

To help address this issue, the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) isproud to announcethe launch of its College Gambling Awareness Campaign, bringing new resources towww.CollegeGambling.org. These new and invaluable resources, including the BetOnU College Gambling Survey, a shareable video and an information-packed toolkit, were developed to further help college health professionals and administrators educate students about gambling-related harms and responsible gaming.

‘College health professionals and university administrators should take advantage of these free science-based tools, and even put a link to CollegeGambling.org on their school’s website,’ said Chris Reilly, NCRG senior research director. ‘We’re happy to help students, faculty and fans across the U.S. start the discussion about gambling-related issues on college campuses.’

In 2011, the NCRG introducedCollegeGambling.org, a website designed to help university administrators, campus health professionals, students and parents address these issues using the latest research on college gambling and free resources to incorporate into existing campus-wide education programs.

This year’s College Gambling Awareness Campaign features several new resources on CollegeGambling.org, including:

• BetOnU College Gambling Survey– This brief survey, created by University of Houston researcher Clayton Neighbors, Ph.D. from an NCRG grant, is the first online intervention that allows college students to see how their gambling behavior compares with other students. After taking a 10-minute, confidential survey, participants will receive information on where they stand when compared to others in different universities and colleges. Research suggests that this awareness can help reduce gambling among students. They will also find resources for help, if they are experiencing gambling-related problems. College health professionals and administrators can use the free resource as part of their wellness programs and in student orientations.
• Webinar– On Wednesday, March 19, the NCRG will hold a free webinar, titled “Preventing Disordered Gambling among College Students.” Dr. Clayton Neighbors will discuss the BetOnU College Gambling Screener, provide an overview of disordered gambling on college campuses and describe the research behind the development and testing of this novel prevention program. (Click here to register.)
• The Facts about College Gambling Video– The NCRG created a short video that provides an overview of gambling among college students, gambling disorders, responsible gaming and how college students can get help for a problem. Anyone can download and share this video in education programs.
• College Gambling Toolkit– The NCRG created a toolkit with resources for college health professionals and administrators that includes free, downloadable collateral materials, such as a brochure, an infographic, the BetOnU College Survey and the college gambling video. The toolkit also includes customizable materials for distribution, including sample newspaper articles, newspaper and radio public service announcements, and social media posts.

Stay tuned to Gambling Disorders 360° in the coming weeks for additional information about these new resources and how they can help students, college health professionals and university administrators get involved on their campuses.

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In 2011, the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) introducedwww.CollegeGambling.org, a website designed to help university administrators, campus health professionals, students and parents address these issues using the latest research on college gambling and free resources to incorporate into existing campus-wide education programs.

This month, the NCRG is adding some new features to CollegeGambling.org to raise awareness about gambling and gambling-related harms on college campuses. The NCRG will release several new resources to help college health professionals and college administrators educate students and faculty about this important issue so they can make responsible decisions about gambling. To learn how you can get involved, please join the NCRG for an informational Google Hangout session on Tuesday, March 11.

NCRG College Gambling Awareness Campaign:

Google Hangout Information Session

WHO:

College Health Professionals and College Administrators

WHAT:

The NCRG will hold a 45-minute Google Hangout for college health professionals and college administrators to learn more about the NCRG’s College Gambling Awareness Campaign, the resources available and how they can help raise awareness at their institutions.

The hangout will cover the following topics:

• College Gambling: A Public Health Perspective
• The NCRG’s College Gambling Initiative
• NCRG College Gambling Awareness Campaign
• Get Involved! Raise Awareness on Your Campus
• Q&A

WHEN:

Tuesday, March 11

Noon – 12:45 p.m. (EDT)

WHERE:

Google Hangout

Please note that you will not be featured on video, but you will be able to communicate with the host throughout the Google Hangout.

REGISTER:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1xpLkLG0ERr88894CDG-ri4_dgq3aB7i7eBdSsAtIXcU/viewform

For more information, visitwww.CollegeGambling.organdwww.ncrg.org. For question, contact Amy Kugler atakugler@ncrg.org.

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Many people may not know that 95 percent of people with gambling disorder also have another mental health disorder as well (Kessler et al., 2008). This stunning reality should influence every aspect of how researchers, clinicians and even the media approach the topic of understanding, diagnosing and treating gambling disorders. This co-occurrence of multiple disorders in an individual (called “comorbidity”) presents many unique challenges for the identification and treatment of gambling disorder. Research that can provide insights into comorbid conditions can be beneficial for clinicians and researchers alike.

One recent study on this topic came from Iman Parhami, M.D., M.P.H., a psychiatry resident at the Delaware Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health, who conducted a survey to examine many health-related issues associated with gambling behaviors and other demographic data. Longtime readers may remember that Dr. Parhami won theoutstanding poster awardat the NCRG conference in 2011.

Dr. Parhami presented the results of this study at the annual meeting of theAmerican Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, a conference he attended with the help of anNCRG travel grant. The study examined over 34,000 representative Americans who were surveyed once in 2001-2002 and again in 2004-2005.

To find out how gambling behavior influenced health outcomes three years later, Dr. Parhami and his collaborators split the survey participants into four groups based on their gambling behaviors:

1. people who did not gamble (the non-gambling group),
2. people who gambled but experienced no problems (the recreational gambling group),
3. people who experienced one to three gambling-related problems (the problem gambling group), and
4. people who experienced 4 or more problems (the gambling disorder group).

The researchers then examined the likelihood that people in each of these groups developed a mental health disorder during the three-year follow-up period.

Researchers found several interesting conclusions. First, the groups with more gambling-related problems also had more other mental conditions during the first survey. That is, the gambling disorder group (group 4) had more disorders than the problem gambling group (group 3), which had more disorders than the recreational group (group 2), which had more problems than the non-gambling group (group 1). This study was not designed to examine whether gambling disorder or one of the other mental health disorders occurred first. One study that did examine this question found that, in three out of four cases, the non-gambling disorder preceded gambling disorder (Kessler et al., 2008).

Second, the more gambling problems a group had, the more likely the group members were to develop further mental health conditions. For example, the gambling disorder group experienced more disorders than the problem gambling group. While it was not surprising that the people with the most gambling problems were most at-risk for developing additional disorders, it was interesting that the recreational gambling group experienced more disorders than the non-gambling group, as neither group was experiencing gambling problems at the time of the first survey. More research will need to be done to better understand this finding.

The final, most interesting conclusion was that the risk of developing mental health conditions was very different between disorders, with risks increasing for some disorders, staying about the same for others and decreasing for a few.

The NCRG asked Dr. Parhami to talk about this phenomenon, and he noted that, in general, people with gambling disorder had about four times more risk of developing another disorder than non-gamblers. However, he stated, “Those with gambling disorder were less likely to develop social phobia.” Social phobia is a strong fear of being judged or embarrassed by others. Dr. Parhami continued, “I suspect that those with gambling disorder are more likely not to develop a social phobia due to the amount of the exposure to social settings for gamblers.”

One takeaway from this study is that even though people with more gambling problems tend to have more risk for developing other disorders in general, that risk is not evenly distributed. Knowing what specific conditions people with gambling disorder are most at risk of developing can lead to more targeted prevention services and more effective interventions. As Dr. Parhami said, “Overall, the negative and positive associations both deserve further research examining why some gamblers develop co-occurring disorders, while others do not.”

For more information on Dr. Parhami’s collaborators, visit theDelaware Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health website. If you are interested in anNCRG Travel Grant, or any of our grant opportunities, visit thegrants page of the NCRG website. As always we welcome your thoughts and questions below.

References

Kessler, R. C., Hwang, I., LaBrie, R., Petukhova, M., Sampson, N. A., Winters, K. C., & Shaffer, H. J. (2008). DSM-IV pathological gambling in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication.Psychol Med,38(9), 1351–60. doi:S0033291708002900 [pii] 10.1017/S0033291708002900

NCRG staffResearch Updatecomorbiditygambling disordersNCRG Travel GrantOutstanding Poster Award

The NCRG’s Amy Kugler is at theNew Horizons in Responsible Gambling conferencein Vancouver, BC. This two-day event is designed to cover responsible gaming from an international prospective, bringing together members of the gaming industry, researchers and clinicians to discuss best practices for responsible gaming programs. Watch this video to learn the highlights of the first day of the conference and stay tuned to the NCRG onTwitterandFacebookfor more.

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From a new video series to an extraordinary amount of funding for cutting-edge research, the NCRG has many accomplishments to celebrate in 2013. The NCRG staff compiled a few of the highlights from the past year.

1. The NCRG took the lead in helping treatment providers grapple with the changes in how gambling disorder is defined by theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5)throughawebinar, a pre-conference workshop, a session at theNCRG Conference on Gambling and Addictionand awhite paper.
2. NCRGeducational programminghelped almost 1,500 treatment providers enhance their knowledge of gambling disorders. In fact, attendance for NCRGwebinarsincreased by 47 percent in 2013 alone!

1. Gambling disorders became part of the national conversation about mental health thanks to representation of NCRG staff and NCRG-funded scientists at meetings of the leading mental health organizations such asAmerican Psychiatric Association,College on Problems of Drug Dependence,Society for Neuroscience, theAmerican College Health AssociationandResearch Society on Alcoholism.
2. Rats! (Literally!) – Innovative research using animal models continued to be a priority as the NCRGawarded three grantsusing rats to better understand gambling disorders. For example, an NCRG-funded study by Rush University Medical Center proved that rats can be used to test the effectiveness of drugs for disordered gambling. The findings were published inNeuropsychopharmacology, renowned as one of the highest impact journals among scientific publications.
3. Preparing the next generation of gambling researchers was a hallmark of 2013 as NCRGawarded six grantsto young scientists and hosted a workshop for 30 new investigators at The University of Chicago.
4. The NCRG releasedtwo videosthat tell the story of NCRG and its impact on the field. See for yourself!
5. The NCRGnamed the University of Chicago and YaleUniversity as the next NCRG Centers of Excellence in Gambling Research. The NCRG also released theeighth volume of its monograph series, which summarizes six innovative studies conducted by the first NCRG Centers of Excellence in Gambling Research at the University of Minnesota and Yale University.
6. A record number of people – more than 33,000 – visited theNCRG’s websiteand blog. We also saw an increase inTwitterandFacebookfollowers!

1. The NCRG unveiledThe Discovery Project, an easy-to-use resource that brings research-based facts to your fingertips.
2. The NCRGawarded more than $700,000 in new grants, including research that will develop an intervention for college students using text messaging; test already-approved pharmaceuticals for gambling disorders; and explore social influences on risky decision-making.

This is only a sampling of the NCRG’s research, trainings and online resources that reached more than 500,000 individuals in 2013. We are very grateful to our many partners for making these accomplishments possible, and we look forward to what 2014 will bring!

Happy Holidays from everyone at the NCRG!

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