Program Item Details
TITLE: Dr. David Hodgins, Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, and Researcher, Alberta Gaming Research Institute
SUBJECT: #183 Study Shows Overcoming Gambling Addiction is Difficult
SYNOPSIS: For some people, gambling can become an addiction that destroys
their lives. New research by Dr David
Hodgins of the Alberta Gaming
Research Institute shows that it’s an addiction that can be harder to overcome than even alcohol or drugs.
AUDIO: Download Audio (mp3 format)
TRANSCRIPT:
#183 November 29, 2005
Interview starts at 1:04
Intro: Studies of the gaming population in Alberta shows that about 5 percent are problem gamblers. This is significant because problem gamblers supply over one third of the revenues to casinos, bingos and other gaming venues. Unfortunately, research shows that people who are trying to overcome their addiction to gambling actually have a harder time than those trying to give up alcohol or drugs. Over the last five years Dr. David Hodgins has followed a group of 100 people trying to kick their gambling addiction. David is a professor of psychology at the University of Calgary and he is a researcher with the Alberta Gaming Research Institute.
Dr. David HodginsDH: Well there are a few factors that are important. And there are a few factors that predict whether the person develops a problem. One of them is a previous history of an addiction. So people who have a substance abuse problem for example are more likely to develop a gambling problem. There are certain personality traits associated with developing a problem, so people who are more impulsive in style, so they make decisions quickly without a lot of thought, those folks are more likely to develop a problem. And in addition, people with a family history of gambling or other additions are more likely to have a problem.
CC: ONCE THEY’VE DEVELOPED A PROBLEM, DOES THIS INFLUENCE IN ANY WAY THEY’RE ABILITY TO OVERCOME IT?
DH: That’s a very interesting question and we’re trying to understand. What we know is many people with gambling problems also at the same time have problems with substance abuse and problems with other mental health disorders and in particular, problems with depression.
And so we’re trying to untangle these various problems and understand what the implications are for how well a person does when they’re trying to overcome the problem.
CC: NOW YOU’VE BEEN LOOKING AT THIS ACTUALLY FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS AND YOU’VE JUST COMPLETED A PROJECT. WHAT IS IT THAT YOU SET OUT TO DO?
DH: About 5 years ago we had interviewed 100 gamblers who had recently quit gambling. And we were interested in understanding some these relationships. How many of them had depression? How many of them had substance abuse problems? How many of them had alcohol problems in particular? Other types of drug problems? And understanding then what happened with their goals of quitting gambling.
So we followed them for a five year period, interviewing them a number of times over the five years. The goal was to really see who does well, and how should we be changing our treatments in a way that will maximize how helpful the treatments are.
CC: WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT SUBSTANCE ABUSE, WHAT KIND OF SUBSTANCE ABUSE?
DH: There were a range. What we found is there are a range of substances. Alcohol is the number one problem for people in Alberta and it was true for this group of people with gambling problems as well. Second on the list was marijuana. We had a lot of people who were regular users and described having problems with their use of marijuana. And then third on the list, a small group but a significant group, were people who have a problem with cocaine.
CC: HOW DOES GAMBLING FIT IN WITH THAT?
DH: Well it was interesting because we were looking at the patterns. And what we found was generally people were more likely to develop their substance abuse problem prior to developing their gambling problem.
But we didn’t find there was any particular relationship necessarily between a person’s gambling and their substance use. It varied a lot from individual to individual. So we had some people who said they would go to the casino and they would drink and they would use drugs and they would smoke cigarettes and it was all kind of part of the same activity
But then we would have others who would really have a disconnect between the different behaviors . So they would go to the casino and gamble and they would go and drink at other times. So they didn’t want to be drinking when they were gambling because they wanted a clear head, for example.
So there was no particular relationship between the various problems
CC: FOR THOSE WHERE DEPRESSION WAS AN ISSUE, HOW DOES DEPRESSION FIT INTO IT? WHAT ROLE DOES IT PLAY?
DH: Again a lot of variability. What we found was that people who had both a gambling problem and had suffered a problem with depression, they were equally likely to tell us that one preceded the other. So they were equally likely to say that they were originally depressed and then eventually developed a gambling problem. Or, the opposite, they had the gambling problem and then became depressed.
CC: YOU FOLLOWED THESE PEOPLE THEN FOR FIVE YEARS AND YOU HAD A PRETTY GOOD SENSE OF WHAT THEIR HISTORY WAS. WERE THEY VERY SUCCESSFUL AT OVERCOMING GAMBLING?
DH: We were surprised, actually. We recruited people who had recently quit gambling and we did it through the media. So we had put advertisements in the newspapers and did radio interviews and so forth. And we recruited pretty committed people, willing to volunteer in research projects. So we were expecting that they would have particularly good outcomes. And surprisingly, I think of the hundred people, we had five people who didn’t gamble at all and a very small number of people who reported they were able string together three months of not gambling. So generally, there was a lot of gambling going on, and people were less successful than we anticipated.
CC: WHAT WOULD MAKE IT SO DIFFICULT FOR THEM TO GIVE IT UP?
DH: An addiction is an addiction. And its very challenging for people What we’re discovering is if anything, a gambling addiction is as difficult if not more difficult than any other type of addiction, like a substance abuse addiction. They’re very challenging.
CC: WELL WHY IS THAT?
DH: The essence of an addiction is really a person’s control over they’re ability to not do the activity becomes impaired. We don’t have a real good understanding of where that comes from. But what we know is, that’s the battle for people. Despite they’re good intentions, they’re drawn back into the behavior or the drinking or the drug use or the gambling.
CC: WELL WHEN THE DECK IS REALLY STACKED AGAINST PEOPLE TO OVERCOME GAMBLING, FOR THE 5 PERCENT WHO DID MANAGE TO DO IT, HOW DID THEY DO IT?
DH: Well what we found in this particular sample of a hundred people is that involvement in support groups was a really big key.
So I’m saying that 5 individuals were totally successful. But there was a larger group of people who had a significant amount of success during the follow-up period. And when we looked at those individuals they were much, much more likely to be involved in support groups like Gamblers Anonymous, or attending a support group at AADAC or seeing an individual therapist, or doing something to keep give them support in their recovery.
CC: WHEN YOU LOOK AT THAT, HOW CAN YOU TURN THAT AROUND INTO PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS FOR TREATMENT?
DH: Well one of I think lessons from the research is the fact that we really need to make sure that we’re providing a variety of supports for individuals with gambling problems. Not everybody is comfortable in attending a Gamblers Anonymous group, for example. Or some people are comfortable attending an anonymous support group, but not seeing an individual therapist. Some people like to read a book in terms of supporting their recovery. I think we need to make sure we’re providing a variety of ways that people can get the support that they need. And really promote that. So that would be one of the major lessons.
The other take home message from this particular research project is that we need to make sure in our treatment programs that we’re attending to some of the related problems. So it’s not helpful to view the substance abuse addiction as something separate form the gambling. And if we can develop integrated treatment approaches, that will be a much more efficient way of providing effective addiction treatment for individuals as opposed to sending them to a substance abuse treatment on Monday and a gambling treatment on Tuesday. Or treatment for depression at the hospital and gambling treatment at AADAC.
So integrated treatment would make sense for some individuals.
CC: WHAT WOULD BE THE IMPLICATIONS THEN FOR POLICY MAKERS?
DH: Well I think that. I think we need a very broad perspective on the treatment system for people with gambling problems, recognizing that there are a fair number of people with problems. That it’s not an insignificant addiction. That it is a real struggle for people to overcome the problems. And support and treatment needs to be something that’s easily accessible and needs to be offered over time. These tend to be long term chronic conditions for individuals. And we need to be providing treatment services that are not necessarily short term and disconnected from each other.
CC: NOW THAT YOU’VE COMPLETED THIS PROJECT, WHERE IS THAT GOING TO LEAD YOU IN TERMS OF RESEARCH FOR FOLLOWUP?
DH: Well we still have a lot to learn in terms of the particular connection for the individual between things like depression, anxiety, personality gambling, and substance abuse. In this relatively small group of a hundred people, we weren’t able to uncover the patterns. So we really need to look more in detail at some of these relationships to better understand them. And then work towards prevention models.
CC: THANK YOU VERY MUCH, DAVID.
DH: Thanks.
Dr. David Hodgins is a professor of psychology at the University of Calgary and a researcher with the Alberta Gaming Research Institute.
FEATURED LINK: Alberta Gaming Research Institute