The Brief Addiction Science Information Source (BASIS)

The WAGER, Vol 4(43) - Epidemiological Measurement: DALY Issue & Prevalent Dilemma

Pathological gambling is only one of the over 300 mental disorders listed in Appendix F of DSM-IV. From acute stress disorder to voyeurism, Appendix F provides a comprehensive (there are 31 varieties of bipolar disorder), but probably not exhaustive, catalog of psychiatric diagnoses. And the diagnostic categories are not static; each new edition means additions, deletions, and name changes. For the epidemiologist and layman alike, finding a home for pathological gambling in the spectrum of illness is a daunting task. One way to comparatively analyze multiple disorders is to measure distribution. By comparing prevalence estimates, we can get an epidemiological... Read more →

The WAGER, Vol 4(42) - Apres Nouse, Le Deluge? Introducing Casino Gambling to a Community

Common sense might dictate that bringing a casino into a community should raise local levels of compulsive gambling and that this directional hypothesis can be tested with a "before and after" analysis. But the opportunity to perform "before and after" research on the impact of casino gambling is rare. The introduction of casino gambling to a new geographical area is a relatively infrequent event, giving researchers few cases to study. In addition, such studies require methodological parity; that is, pre- and post-casino data collection methods must be comparable and samples drawn from the same population. Furthermore, even if a significant... Read more →

The WAGER, Vol 4(41) - The 5-HTT Gene: The Long and the Short of It

Nested among the over 27 million bases of human chromosome 17 lies the 5-HTT gene, which regulates a critical function in the brain. It is this gene that controls the expression of the transporters responsible for the uptake of serotonin after its release into the synaptic gap that separates one neuron from its neighbor. A brief review of the events that are responsible for the chemical transmission of nervous impulses is as follows: 1) Electrical signals travel down the length of a neuron, eventually reaching the the terminal of the presynaptic cell 2) The impulse triggers the release of serotonin... Read more →

The WAGER, Vol 4(40) - The March of Research

Clinicians treating pathological gambling have a limited scope of therapeutic options from which to choose. Among the more popular are cognitive-behavior therapy, psychopharmacology, conventional psychotherapy, and groups based on the 12-step model. With the exception of pharmacological options, many of which are still in development, most of these treatments have been available for years. Indeed, the rate at which new treatments are developed for pathological gambling seems slow when compared with those for other disorders such as schizophrenia and depression. Such a paucity of clinical options might seem paradoxical given the vast amount of research literature produced by scholars and... Read more →