26-02-08, Harvard Study Explodes Myths On Gambling Addiction
The review paper, "Stability and Progression of Disordered Gambling: Lessons From Longitudinal Studies," by Harvard Medical School researchers challenges the conventional wisdom surrounding gambling addiction. The study by Dr. Debi LaPlante, a psychiatry instructor at Harvard Medical School, calls into question the idea there is no recovery from gambling addiction and that individuals with more severe cases are less likely to recover than those with few or no symptoms.
“As researchers understand the course of the disorder, health care providers can develop better tailored treatment plans,`` LaPlante said.
Still, the study which itself synthesizes the findings of five major studies conducted is likely to stir controversy as well. The National Centre for Responsible Gaming, a nonprofit funded by the casino industry to sponsor research into gambling disorders, was the primary sponsor of the report.
The Harvard-affiliated division responsible for the study also received financial backing from the Venetian Casino Resort, as well as other health and medical organizations, such as the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
One prominent anti-gambling activist questioned the study`s findings given the casino industry`s involvement in helping pay for the research.
“Anytime the gambling industry funds research on the gambling industry, you have to be skeptical,`` said Carey Theil, a board member of National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling.
However, the Harvard study, published in the January issue of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, steers clear of the larger political debate over gambling expansion and its social costs. Rather, the report takes aim at the traditional view of gambling addiction as a chronic disorder for which hopes of recovery are dim.
That view is summed up in the American Psychiatric Association`s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which classifies gambling addiction as “persistent and recurrent.``
But LaPlante and a research team that included Dr. Howard Shaffer, a well-known Harvard addiction specialist, came to a much different conclusion.
The researchers reviewed and reinterpreted the findings of five major studies of problem gamblers. One key new finding: a higher likelihood for improvement among serious problem gamblers than previously thought. Moreover, “Level 3” addicts, or those also with most serious problems, did not appear to have a significantly harder time curbing their betting habits than Level 2 gambling addicts.
“For individuals who experience maladaptive behavior patterns, the likelihood of improvement is high,`` the study finds.
The researchers also attack another traditional belief about gambling addiction – that, like alcoholism and drug abuse, it can be a progressive illness.
Simply put, it refutes the belief that the the malady grows inexorably, picking up momentum as the addict progresses through the different stages of his or her illness.
Instead, the Harvard study found considerable evidence that gambling addicts move in and out of the different stages of their disorder, with the more heavily addicted gamblers more likely to scale back on their betting than to escalate it.
This finding is in line with new research on drug and alcohol addiction, which have also challenged the idea that all addicts are fated to a relentless march to their doom, the Harvard study notes.
“Given the accumulating evidence indicating that the pathways into and away from various expressions of addiction are more similar than different, it should not be surprising that the epidemiology of intemperate gambling suggests similar revisions to the widely held beliefs about its trajectory,`` the Harvard study finds.
Robert Williams, a University of Lethbridge professor and one of Canada`s Leading researchers on gambling addiction, confirmed that the study`s findings would not be surprising to the research community.
"Alcoholics or drug addicts - it`s most typical that they`ll have a year or two of normal behaviours," Williams said. "They move in and out of addiction. No matter what pathology you have, it`s rare that it`ll be totally unremitting."
Still, the report comes amid a major push by the casino industry to allay concerns about the impact of expanded gambling.
Another recent study, commissioned by the American Gaming Association, contends the social costs of crime and addiction often associated with casino expansion can`t be easily calculated.
Several states across the country are now debating whether to legalize Las Vegas style gambling, from Massachusetts to Kentucky, with fears of increased crime, addiction and other social costs playing a prominent role.
But Karen Brandon, a spokeswoman for the National Centre for Responsible Gaming, rejected the idea that the Harvard study is part of a larger industry push to downplay the social costs of casino expansion.
The centre is funded by the AGA as the industry association`s charitable arm. But it is the Harvard affiliated Institute for Research on Pathological Gambling and Related Disorders that doles out the centre`s money on various research projects, she said.
The centre has been helping foot the bill for such studies it was founded in 1996, Brandon noted.
Even without that political backdrop, the study`s questioning of long-held assumptions about gambling addition is likely to generate enough controversy on its own. “These findings challenge many common beliefs about the course of gambling-related problems and disorders,`` the Harvard study concludes.
