GAMBLING DISORDERS 360°

The fourth annual Collaborative Perspectives on Addiction will be held March 18-19, 2016, in San Diego. This year’s theme is “Reducing Health Disparities through Addiction Science and Practice.” The deadline for poster proposals to be considered for travel awards is Dec. 4, 2015. If your topic is focused on disordered gambling, consider applying to the NCRG for a Travel Grant. NCRG will provide up to $1,500 in support of registration fees and travel expenses.

Collaborative Perspectives on Addiction is sponsored by the Society of Addiction Psychology (Division 50 of the American Psychological Association), which promotes advances in research, professional training, and clinical practice within the broad range of addictive behaviors.

The NCRG salutes the sponsors of the 2015 conference, held Sept. 27-29, 2015, in Las Vegas in conjunction with Global Gaming Expo. Our top Platinum Sponsors, Las Vegas Sands Corporation and MGM Resorts International, underwrote the two highlights of the conference: respectively, the Poster Session and Reception on Sunday evening and the NCRG Awards Luncheon on Monday.

The NCRG has teamed with Ohio Mental Health and Addiction Services and the Drug Free Action Alliance to offer Ohio treatment providers a one-day workshop, Identification and Treatment of Gambling Disorder. Scheduled for Oct. 15, 2015, in Columbus, Ohio, the program will be led by Dr. Jon E. Grant, professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at The University of Chicago. Dr. Grant is not only one of the leading researchers on gambling disorder but also is actively involved as a clinician, seeing many disordered gamblers in his practice.

Teenagers are known for making risky decisions. But does research support this assumption? A new study from Duke University, funded in part by the NCRG, found that adolescents aged 10 to 16 can be more analytical in their economic choices than many slightly older adults. Published in the October-December issue of the journal, Cognitive Development, the study suggests that  not only should we give teenagers more credit for rationality but also that parents should help children hone their cost-benefit analysis skills in making real-life decisions (Youngbin, Payne, Cohen, & Huettel, 2015). One of the authors, Scott Huettel, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke, explained that while not as irrational as usually characterized, adolescents don’t use the simple rules of decision-making as effectively as adults. For example, young adults are more sensitive to positive outcomes than adults. This accounts for the many risky behaviors observed in this age group, including gambling.

Psychologists, social workers, counselors and other healthcare providers can earn up to 15 continuing education hours at the 16^th Annual NCRG Conference on Gambling and Addiction. Scheduled for Sept. 27-29, 2015, in Las Vegas, the NCRG’s conference is approved by NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals; the National Council on Problem Gambling, the American Academy of Health Care Providers in the Addictive Disorders, the National Association of Social Workers, the Canadian Problem Gambling Certification Board and the Canadian Addiction Counsellors Certification Federation.

The NCRG is proud to announce the outstanding roster of speakers for the NCRG Conference on Gambling and Addiction, scheduled for Sept. 27-29, 2015, in Las Vegas:

The NCRG has made it a priority to disseminate research findings on gambling disorder and responsible gaming beyond academia. We are especially committed to ensuring that credible scientific research informs gaming regulations designed to reduce gambling-related harms. Toward this goal, the NCRG has teamed up with the International Association of Gaming Advisors (IAGA) to present NCRG @ IAGA, a one-day conference scheduled for June 2, 2015, the day before IAGA’s International Gaming Summit begins at the Fairmont Pacific Rim in Vancouver.

Friday, April 3, 2015
2 - 3:30 p.m. (EDT)

Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment: Research Priority for 2015

Speaker: Ken C. Winters, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychiatry
University of Minnesota Medical School

Moderator: Christine Reilly
Senior Research Director, National Center for Responsible Gaming

The 2015 research grants program of the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) will focus on investigations of SBIRT (screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment) in order to improve identification of disordered gamblers, explore the efficacy of brief interventions for this population and increase the rate of disordered gamblers referred to treatment. This webinar is intended to help researchers interested in applying to the NCRG for an SBIRT project. However, healthcare providers and public health professionals will also find this program useful in view of the fact that SBIRT is being implemented by many state and national organizations, including the Addiction Technology Transfer Centers associated with SAMHSA. In addition, treatment providers and public health professionals interested in collaborating with researchers on an SBIRT research project are also encouraged to participate.

Did you know that only about 15 percent of disordered gamblers in the US seek treatment or attend self-help groups (Slutske, 2006)? However, nearly half of lifetime disordered gamblers received treatment for some other mental or substance problem (Kessler et al., 2008). According to the National Comorbidity Survey Replication, increased screening for emerging gambling problems in clients already in treatment might be an opportunity to prevent full-blown gambling disorders (Kessler et al., 2008).

Research by two NCRG-funded investigators has recently received broad media coverage. Marc Potenza, MD, PhD, principal investigator of the Yale Center of Excellence in Gambling Research, was the senior author of an article published in the high-impact journal JAMA Psychiatry in February 2015. This twin study sheds new light on the relationship between gambling disorder and obsessive-compulsive behaviors. The study finds that individuals with severe obsessive-compulsive behaviors — or those who demonstrate specific forms of the behavior, such as fear of germs or desire for order in the environment — are also more likely to meet diagnostic criteria for gambling disorder.