Gambling symptoms, behaviors, and cognitive distortions in Japanese university students.

BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between symptoms of gambling problems, gambling behaviours, and cognitive distortions among a university student population in Japan ages 20 to 29 years. We aimed to address the gap in knowledge of gambling disorders and treatment for this population. METHODS: Data were obtained from 1471 Japanese undergraduate students from 19 universities in Japan. Descriptive statistics and hierarchical multivariate regression analysis were used to investigate whether the factors of gambling cognitive distortions would have predictive effects on gambling disorder symptoms. RESULTS: Results indicated that 5.1% of the participants are classifiable as probable disordered gamblers. The bias of the gambling type to pachinko and pachislot was unique to gamblers in Japan. Of the students sampled, 342 self-reported gambling symptoms via the South Oaks Gambling Screen. Hierarchical multivariate regression analysis indicated that one domain of gambling cognitive distortions was associated significantly with gambling symptoms among the 342 symptomatic participants: gambling expectancy (ß = 0.19, p < .05). The multivariate model explained 47% of the variance in the gambling symptoms. CONCLUSION: This study successfully contributed to the sparse research on university student gambling in Japan. Specifically, our results indicated a statistically significant relationship between gambling cognitive distortions and gambling disorder symptoms. These results can inform the development of preventive education and treatment for university students with gambling disorder in Japan. The report also describes needs for future research of university students with gambling disorder.

Cognitive profile of patients with burning mouth syndrome in the Japanese population.

The present study investigated which cognitive characteristics, including cancer phobia, self-efficacy, pain-related catastrophizing, and anxiety sensitivity, affect burning mouth syndrome (BMS) symptoms in the Japanese population. A total of 46 BMS patients (44 women and 2 men; mean age, 59.98 +/- 9.57 years; range, 30-79 years) completed a battery of questionnaires, including measures of pain severity, oral-related quality of life (QOL), stress-response, pain-related catastrophizing, self-efficacy, anxiety sensitivity, and tongue cancer phobia. The Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), and Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) scores in the BMS patients were compared with the scores of Japanese healthy participants (PCS, n = 449; GSES, n = 278; ASI, n = 9603) reported in previous studies. Catastrophizing and anxiety sensitivity were significantly higher in the BMS patients than in the healthy subjects (P < 0.001). In BMS patients, catastrophizing was significantly correlated with pain severity, stress-response, psychological disability, social disability, and handicap. Cancer phobia was significantly correlated with psychological disability and handicap. Since catastrophizing showed a higher correlation with BMS symptoms than cancer phobia, catastrophizing might be a more significant cognitive factor affecting symptoms than cancer phobia in BMS patients in the Japanese population.