Sports betting around the world: A systematic review.

Background and aims: This systematic review examines whether sports betting behaviors differ among and between sports bettors in different countries, evaluates psychosocial problems related to sports betting behaviors and how problems may vary by country, and lastly, summarizes the current regulatory guidelines for sports betting. Methods: We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines and included peer-reviewed articles from PubMed, Web of Science, and PsycINFO. Studies on sports betting behavior were included if they were published in English or Chinese between January 1, 2010 and March 28th, 2022. We gathered regulatory information from peer-reviewed articles, legal acts, and relevant websites. Of 2,450 articles screened, 65 were included in the final review. Results: Marketing and promotion of sports betting were more prominent for sports betting in Australia and the United Kingdom. Interviews with sports bettors demonstrated that sports betting is persuasive and normalized. Psychosocial problems do not appear to differ greatly by country, and sports betting appears to be associated with elevated levels of problem gambling. Responsible gambling approaches have helped address risky sports betting behaviors. China and South Korea have imposed more strict regulations and restrictions on sports betting access in comparison to countries such as Australia or the United States. Discussion and conclusions: Currently, sports betting is easy to access, normalized, and contains many attractive features for sports bettors. Psychoeducation about potential risks of sports betting and encouragement of responsible gambling strategies could help lessen risky sports-betting behaviors, though cross-cultural adaptations should be explored.

Examining the Clinical Correlates of Overeating and Binge-Eating Behaviors Among U. S. Veterans.

INTRODUCTION: Pressure to meet U.S. military weight requirements during service may predispose some service members to develop psychiatric disorders such as eating disorders or unhealthy eating behaviors, which may persist after military discharge. Specifically, research examining U.S. military veterans has found that in weight management programs, veterans with binge-eating behaviors have shown poor treatment outcomes. Overall, previous research suggests that veterans experience considerable and persistent disordered eating problems, and in addition may experience a higher prevalence of disordered eating in comparison to the general U.S. population. Research on Post-9/11 Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn (OEF/OIF/OND) veterans is needed as this group frequently presents with high rates of medical and psychiatric disorders. The current study used clinician-administered structured interviews to examine relationships between psychiatric, health, and demographic variables in a sample of Post-9/11 OEF/OIF/OND veterans with binge-eating or overeating behavior or neither. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This article presents secondary analyses of the baseline phase from data obtained for the Survey of the Experiences of Returning Veterans. Using structured phone interviews, we cross-sectionally examined patterns of medical comorbidities between sociodemographic, health, eating, and psychiatric variables in 846 recently deployed U.S. veterans with binge-eating behaviors (reporting both overeating and loss of control [LOC] eating), overeating behaviors (overeating without LOC), or healthy controls (absence of any disordered eating). Study procedures were approved by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Institutional Review Boards, and informed consent was obtained from the participants. A series of chi-square and analysis of variance tests revealed significant bivariate between-group differences in sociodemographic, health, eating, and psychiatric variables. Variables with significant group differences (P < .05) were entered into a multinomial logistic regression to examine relationships between psychiatric, health, and eating factors and binge-eating severity. RESULTS: Results of the multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that women relative to men were less likely to overeat. When comparing the binge-eating group and controls, higher body mass index was associated with higher odds of binge eating. Furthermore, for the overeating group in comparison to controls, fasting behavior was associated with higher odds of overeating. For the psychiatric variables, the binge-eating and overeating groups were associated with higher rates of compulsive buying when compared to healthy controls. Additionally, the overeating group was associated with higher rates of alcohol dependence. Lastly, binge-eating and overeating behaviors were positively associated with specific psychiatric and health comorbidities. CONCLUSIONS: Further research is needed to inform the development of effective treatments for disordered eating problems, as evidenced by an anticipated increase of veterans entering the VA healthcare system and the high rate of binge eating observed in our study and prior research in Post-9/11 veterans. Moreover, our study findings suggest the relevance of screening veterans for compulsive buying. This study was limited by its relatively small sample which only examined disordered eating behaviors. Future studies could simultaneously explore binge-eating behaviors and binge-eating disorder diagnoses in larger samples. Study strengths include a diverse sample of Post-9/11 veterans with sizable female representation.

Role of food neophobia and early exposure in children's implicit attentional bias to fruits and vegetables.

Children often struggle to eat the daily recommended servings of fruits and vegetables, and as a result many have poor nutrient intake. This is especially problematic for neophobic children; or those who are hesitant to try new foods. Maratos and Staples [Appetite, 91, 220-225 (2015)] found that children who are high in food neophobia show attentional biases to unfamiliar fruits and vegetables, which may be related to their low consumption of these healthy foods. The present study sought to replicate and extend these findings, by using a visual dot-probe task that paired images of fruits and vegetables to perceptually matched neutral control stimuli. Seventy-eight 5-8 year-old children (Mage = 6.4 years, SD = 1.1, 42% girls) participated. Initial analyses failed to reveal significant attentional biases to the foods in children who were high in neophobia. Subsequent exploratory analyses included children's previous exposure to the foods in the task as a moderator variable. These analyses revealed that overall, children showed an attentional bias away from familiar fruits and vegetables. Moreover, previous exposure to the foods moderated the effect of food neophobia on attentional bias. For children who were low in food neophobia, as their fruit and vegetable exposure increased, their attentional bias away from the familiar foods decreased. In contrast, for food neophobic children, as fruit and vegetable exposure increased, they showed more attentional bias away from familiar foods. Although these findings failed to replicate those reported by Maratos and Staples (2015), they suggest that children's attentional biases to healthy foods may be a result of the interplay between food neophobia and the food environment to which they are exposed.

Current pharmacotherapy for gambling disorder: a systematic review.

Introduction: Gambling disorder is classified as an addictive disorder and is associated with significant distress and impairment in personal, social, occupational or other important areas of functioning. Although no pharmacotherapy has a formal indication for gambling disorder, data suggest potential benefits of specific medications.Area covered: This systematic review evaluated findings from 19 randomized controlled trials testing pharmacotherapies for the treatment of gambling disorder.Expert opinion: Few randomized controlled trials have studied pharmacotherapies for gambling disorder. Though results are limited, opioid antagonists like naltrexone showed promise in the pharmacological treatment of gambling disorder. Pharmacotherapy combined with psychotherapy treatments for gambling disorder may provide better rates of patient retention in comparison to pharmacology-only treatments, though further research is needed in this area. Future studies should address gaps relating to considerations of racial, ethnic, gender and other individual differences in clinical studies. Because gambling disorder often co-occurs with other psychiatric disorders, additional research is needed to test treatments for dually diagnosed patients.