Research Update

Although pathological gambling (PG) has been recognized as a psychological disorder since 1980, there are still no FDA-approved medications to treat the disorder. Until now, most pharmacological treatments for PG have been adapted from treatments from other addictive disorders such as alcohol dependence. A recently published article in the journal Psychopharmacology reports on the use of a drug from an unexpected source: a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease (Grant, Chamberlain, Odlaug, Potenza, & Kim, 2010).

With publication of the DSM-5 likely to move Pathological Gambling from its current clinical classification as an Impulse Control Disorder to a new category called “Addiction and Related Disorders,” there is growing interest in other potential “behavioral addictions.” One such behavior, video game playing, is the subject of a new study conducted by researchers at Yale University School of Medicine and published in the journal Pediatrics (Desai, Krishnan-Sarin, Cavallo, & Potenza, 2010).

Gambling among ethnic and racial minorities, especially indigenous groups, is an important and largely untapped area for research, which has historically fallen short of its potential because of tensions between researchers and aboriginal peoples. For example, in the U.S., many Native Americans believe that research conducted on their tribes, especially projects on addictive behaviors, has been characterized by unethical practices (as discussed in our Jan. 2010 Issues & Insights). Reminding us that these issues have worldwide import, a recent study published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health explores the relationships between researchers and Indigenous Australians, and proposes several practical solutions to these problems in the context of a community survey of gambling behaviors of aboriginal Australians (Hing, Breen, & Gordon, 2010).

Recovering from addiction is all about changing one’s behavior. Anyone who has tried to diet, quit smoking or get off the couch and exercise knows that changing behavior can be very challenging. It is especially true for individuals struggling with an addictive disorder.

One way to measure the success of a research study is to calculate its influence on the field. The Web of Science is an online index of peer-reviewed publications that monitors the number of times a particular article is cited in other publications. A count of how many times a paper is referenced can be used as a rough estimation of the impact of a study on the field, although it is not a measure of quality.

Conventional wisdom assumes that individuals with gambling problems must quit “cold turkey” and abstain from gambling in order to achieve recovery. However, a new article in the journal Addiction reports on individuals who are recovering from a gambling disorder without abstaining from all gambling activities (Slutske, Piasecki, Blaszczynski, & Martin, 2010). This study of Australian twins examined the behavior of a representative cross-section of the population, and not just people in treatment for gambling disorders. Population surveys like the one used in this study are useful for understanding how recovery occurs, as roughly 80 percent of people who recover from a gambling disorder do so without any kind of formal treatment (Slutske, 2006). This type of research is particularly noteworthy because much of what is known about people with gambling disorders has come from studies of people in formal treatment programs.

The National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) recently released the fifth volume of Increasing the Odds: A Series Dedicated to Understanding Gambling Disorders, which is titled “Evaluating Self-Exclusion as an Intervention for Disordered Gambling.”  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.

On Tuesday, Oct. 12, the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) hosted a session for regulators and advisors at the 2010 International Association of Gaming Advisors (IAGA)/International Association of Gaming Regulations (IAGR) International Conference in Washington, D.C. The session, titled, “The Science of Gaming Regulations: Testing the Effectiveness of Regulations Designed to Reduce Gambling-related Harms,” featured a panel of experts who discussed the importance of scientific research in the development and evaluation of international gaming regulations designed to reduce gambling-related harms.

The “Room for Debate” section of The New York Times recently posed the question, “Should Internet gambling be legalized?” Several respondents identified an increase in gambling addiction as the probable outcome if Congress lifts the current ban on online gambling in the United States. The belief that the easy access and social isolation of Internet gambling make it an especially risky behavior has become conventional wisdom.

A new review article from the principal investigators of the NCRG Centers of Excellence in Gambling Research at Yale University and the University of Minnesota explores the potential of pharmacological treatments for disordered gambling in adolescents. It is important to identify an effective treatment for this age group, as adolescents are at a higher risk for developing gambling-related problems than adults.  However, no drug trials focused on pathological gambling have been conducted with this age group.