Issues & Insights Archive
March 2010 Brief Interventions for Disordered Gambling in College Students
Nancy M. Petry, Ph.D., and Jeremiah Weinstock, Ph.D.
University of Connecticut Health Center
March Madness refers not just to the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s basketball tournament, but also to the uptick in gambling activity that ranges from office pools to betting online. An increased awareness during this time of year about gambling on college sports usually leads to questions about gambling by college students. Consequently, we have devoted the March edition of Issues & Insights to new research on college gambling.
February 2010 Advancing the Science of Gambling Research through Peer Review
Linda B. Cottler, Ph.D., M.P.H. and Christine Reilly
The Institute for Research on Gambling Disorders this week announced significant changes in its competitive research grants program. These modifications, the product of a recent review of the grants program by the Institute’s Scientific Advisory Board, will offer twice as many grants, provide new opportunities for researchers beginning to explore gambling disorders and enhance the quality of research funded by the Institute—while increasing the number of investigators working in the field.
January 2010 Creating Partnerships between American Indian Communities and Researchers
Eileen Luna-Firebaugh, J.D., M.P.A. and Katherine Spilde, M.B.A., Ph.D.
To understand why tribal governments are reluctant to allow “outside” researchers to study their communities, consider the following story. In 2004, the Havasupai Tribe filed a lawsuit against Arizona State University (ASU) charging that ASU researchers had misused blood samples taken from tribal members who had been told that the sample material would be used for a study on the genetics of diabetes. The Havasupai later learned that the samples were also used for research on schizophrenia, inbreeding and migration patterns, without the tribe’s consent.
November 2009 Money, Money, Money: Current Issues Affecting Research, Recovery and Responsible Gaming
Christine Reilly
Institute for Research on Gambling Disorders
The theme of this year’s NCRG Conference on Gambling and Addiction may seem a bit simplistic. After all, isn’t winning money the currency of gambling addiction? But as the conference program shows, there are a variety of layers to this topic. First and foremost, there is new research on how people make decisions about money. Made possible by advances in brain imaging technology, investigations of the neurobiology of decision-making will shed light on why some people make poor decisions by gambling beyond their means and continue to do so in spite of adverse consequences.
September 2009 New Research Shows Connections Between Gambling Disorders and Schizophrenia
Christine Reilly
Executive Director, Institute for Research on Gambling Disorders
As the body of research on gambling disorders continues to grow, scientific evidence is beginning to show that some vulnerable and special needs populations appear to be at a higher risk for developing gambling disorders than the general population. The National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) and the Institute for Research on Gambling Disorders have made research on these groups a priority, supporting investigations of gambling problems among young people, women, homeless individuals and African-American adolescents.
August 2009 Cultivating the Next Generation of Gambling Researchers
Christine Reilly
Executive Director, Institute for Research on Gambling Disorders
When the New Investigator category of our project grants program debuted in 2004, we sought to attract talented young researchers to the field of gambling studies. This year, with the award of a grant to Dr. Serena King of Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn., the National Center for Responsible Gaming and the Institute for Research on Gambling Disorders have supported a total of five new investigators with more than $250,000 in project grants.
July 2009 Risk-Taking Rats May Help Advance Treatments for Gambling Disorders
Christine Reilly
Executive Director, Institute for Research on Gambling Disorders
At first glance, research on lab rats who “gamble” might seem either fodder for jokes or irrelevant to the search for solutions for gambling disorders; however, recently published findings of an NCRG-funded investigation at the University of British Columbia demonstrates that such research represents, as Dr. Marc Potenza of Yale University observed, a “significant step forward” that could eventually lead to new treatments for pathological gambling.
June 2009 A New Chapter in Gambling Research
Christine Reilly
Executive Director, Institute for Research on Gambling Disorders
Welcome to the Institute for Research on Gambling Disorders and the first edition of Issues & Insights. Here we’ll keep you updated on the latest issues and research on gambling disorders and related topics, including feature posts from some of the leading researchers in this field. For this inaugural edition, we’re reflecting on a new chapter for both the Institute and the field of research on gambling disorders.
