ABSTRACT
The development and evaluation of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Inventory of Gambling Situations (CAMH-IGS) is described. The CAMH-IGS is based on a cognitive-behavioural approach to addiction that sees excessive gambling as a pattern of behaviour which is learned, and which can be changed. The CAMH-IGS is designed to determine the patterns of behaviour, thoughts or feelings which may trigger problematic gambling, with the goal of developing tailored treatment and relapse-prevention approaches for clients. The information can be used in treatment planning. A sample of 524 gamblers that included 323 problem and probable pathological gamblers was used to evaluate the factor structure, reliability, and external correlations of the CAMH-IGS. The results show that the CAMH-IGS consists of 10 internally reliable subscales that can identify individual differences between clients.
ABSTRACT
This study evaluated an integrated treatment for comorbid problem gambling, anger, and substance use. Problem gamblers with comorbid anger problems (N=42), half of whom also had substance use disorders, were randomized to either a 14-week integrated treatment targeting anger and addictions (i.e., both gambling and substance use) or a specialized treatment-as-usual (TAU) for gambling and substance use. Participants were assessed at baseline (Tl), 14 weeks (T2), and 12 weeks follow-up (T3). Relative to the TAU, participants in the integrated anger and addictions treatment reported significantly less gambling at T2 and T3 and less trait anger and substance use at T3. Findings suggest that it is important to screen gambling clients for the presence of comorbid anger and substance use problems and that, when present, these problems need to be addressed concurrently in gambling treatment in order to optimize treatment outcomes.
Subject(s)
Anger , Delivery of Health Care, Integrated/methods , Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders/epidemiology , Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders/therapy , Gambling , Substance-Related Disorders/epidemiology , Substance-Related Disorders/therapy , Adult , Aged , Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders/psychology , Female , Gambling/psychology , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Substance-Related Disorders/psychology , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
This study examined the prevalence and severity of intimate partner violence (IPV) among 248 problem gamblers (43 women, 205 men) recruited from newspaper advertisements. The main outcome measures used were the Canadian Problem Gambling Index, the Conflicts Tactics Scale-2, the State Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2, the drug and alcohol section of the Addiction Severity Index and the substance use section of the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV. In this sample, 62.9% of participants reported perpetrating and/or being the victims of IPV in the past year, with 25.4% reporting perpetrating severe IPV. The majority of the sample (64.5%) also had clinically significant anger problems, which was associated with an increased risk of being both the perpetrator and victim of IPV. The presence of a lifetime substance use disorder among participants who had clinically significant anger problems further increased the likelihood of both IPV perpetration and victimization. These findings underscore the importance of routinely screening gambling clients for anger and IPV, and the need to develop public policy, prevention and treatment programs to address IPV among problem gamblers. Future research to examine IPV among problem gamblers is recommended.
