View clinical trials related to Gambling.
Filter by:Nova Scotia is experiencing a proliferation of gambling opportunities and their related gambling problems. The 2003 Nova Scotia Prevalence Study (2004) found that approximately 50,000 adult Nova Scotians are at some risk for problem gambling and that approximately 93,000 adult Nova Scotians are intimately connected to at least one person who has a gambling problem. The serious consequences of problem gambling are being felt by the Individuals engaging in Problem Gambling (IPGs), their Concerned Significant Others (CSOs) and their Communities. Very few IPGs access support services for their gambling problems. Some reports (National Gambling Impact Study Commission 1999) have found that only 3% of IPGs seek treatment. The Nova Scotia Gambling Prevalence Study (2004) states: "Overall, 3.5% (26,000 adults) have been motivated to help someone else with a current gambling problem versus 0.5% (3,700 adults) seeking assistance or information for a personal problem". While the CSOs of IPGs are seven times more likely to access professional addiction treatment the options for these individuals are limited and treatment programs often lack evidence in support of their effectiveness. The Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT) (Meyers & Wolfe 2004) approach provides significant benefits to the CSOs of persons abusing alcohol and other drugs. They benefits include: improvement in the quality of life of the CSOs; increasing the rate of substance abusers entering treatment; and decreased substance use. CRAFT empowers CSOs by providing tools to positively influence theirs and their significant other's behavior. The current study investigates the applicability and effectiveness of the CRAFT approach to the CSOs of IPGS. It is predicted that benefits to the CSOs receiving CRAFT will significantly surpass those receiving treatment as usual. The predicted benefits are: improvement in quality of life for the CSO; engagement of IPGs in treatment; and decreased gambling by the IPGs. With these achieved outcomes, this research will provide opportunity for earlier intervention, improved individual and family functioning and a reduction of the negative impact of problem gambling on the community.
The quest for an effective medication therapy for problem gambling remains an important priority for the problem gambling treatment research field. While several medications have been evaluated in controlled clinical trials, no medication has been shown to unequivocally reduce gambling behaviour and, to date, no medication has been approved for treating this disorder. Recently, topiramate, indicated for the treatment of seizure disorders, has shown some promise as a medication therapy for problem gambling. In this project, the efficacy of topiramate will be evaluated in a placebo-controlled clinical trial, the first study to do so. The interaction of the effects of the medication and gambling sub-type will be examined to determine whether the efficacy of topiramate is correlated with the specific biopsychosocial history of the gambler.
Despite evidence of high rates of concurrent substance use and anger problems among problem gamblers, until recently there have been no empirically evaluated treatments for these co-morbid problems. A recent study (Korman, Collins, McMain, & Skinner, 2005) found that an emotion and behaviour regulation treatment (EBRT) was more effective than a gambling-only treatment-as-usual in engaging clients in treatment and in reducing gambling, anger, and substance use. This study is a replication of Korman et al's study and will compare an emotion and behaviour regulation treatment (EBRT) for problem gambling, anger and substance use to a manualized cognitive behavioural treatment (CBT) for problem gambling.