NCRG Monograph Now Available: What Clinicians Need To Know About 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.

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