University of Minnesota

What is the impact of Internet gambling and video games on young people? Are the rates of gambling and problem gambling in this population remaining stable or changing? Researchers Randy Stinchfield, Ph.D., University of Minnesota, and Marc Potenza, M.D., Ph.D., Yale University, will discuss this topic at the 12^th annual NCRG Conference on Gambling and Addiction. Their session on Monday, October 3 is titled “What the Research Shows: The Latest on Teen Gambling” and will report on the latest research on youth gambling.

Regarding youth gambling, results from the Minnesota Student Survey suggest that the rates of youth gambling have declined from 1992 to 2007.  According to Dr. Stinchfield’s (2011) study published in Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, an analysis of this survey suggests a decline in gambling behaviors among ninth and 12^th grade Minnesota public, charter and tribal school students. In an interview with the NCRG earlier this year, Dr. Stinchfield offered explanations for some of his findings.

The National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) presented the first installment of the 2011 NCRG Webinar Series to more than 250 participants in March – one of the highest attended sessions for the NCRG. Led by Dr. Jon Grant, M.D., the webinar was titled “Gambling Disorders: What Addiction Professionals Need To Know” and cosponsored by NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals.  Visit the NCRG website for an archived version of the presentation.

While there have been a number of studies conducted on youth gambling, there is no clear consensus about whether gambling rates in this population are increasing, decreasing, or staying the same. Recent reviews of the literature have yielded mixed conclusions and found a variety of results depending on when, where, and how the research was conducted (e.g., Volberg, Gupta, Griffiths, Olason, & Delfabbro, 2010; Jacobs, 2004).

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).

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.

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.

The following is an excerpt from the article, “All in the Family: New Research on the Impact of Having a Parent with Gambling Problems,” which was originally published in the spring 2010 edition of Responsible Gaming Quarterly.

Scientists and clinicians have long speculated that gambling disorders are more prevalent in families with a history of problem gambling behavior. The role that heredity plays in the development of a gambling disorder is important to research focused on the causes of the disorder and to assessment and treatment. Research has started to unravel the genetic versus environmental factors. A University of Minnesota study, “Characteristics of Pathological Gamblers with a Problem Gambling Parent,” recently published in The American Journal on Addiction, is the first attempt to determine whether having a problem gambling parent is associated with any unique clinical features in adults with pathological gambling (PG) (Schreiber, Odlaug, Kim, & Grant, 2009).