Gambling Addiction (cont.)
Roxanne Dryden-Edwards, MD
Dr. Roxanne Dryden-Edwards is an adult, child, and adolescent psychiatrist. She is a former Chair of the Committee on Developmental Disabilities for the American Psychiatric Association, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, and Medical Director of the National Center for Children and Families in Bethesda, Maryland.
William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR
Dr. Shiel received a Bachelor of Science degree with honors from the University of Notre Dame. There he was involved in research in radiation biology and received the Huisking Scholarship. After graduating from St. Louis University School of Medicine, he completed his Internal Medicine residency and Rheumatology fellowship at the University of California, Irvine. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology.
In this Article
- What is a gambling addiction?
- What are causes and risk factors for gambling addiction?
- What are symptoms and signs of a gambling addiction?
- How is a gambling addiction diagnosed?
- What is the treatment for gambling addiction?
- What are complications and negative effects of gambling addiction?
- Where can people get support for gambling addiction?
- Where can people find more information about gambling addiction?
- Gambling Addiction At A Glance
- Find a local Psychiatrist in your town
What is the treatment for gambling addiction?
Although there is no standardized treatment for pathological gambling, many people participate in Gamblers' Anonymous (GA). The approximately 8% one-year abstinence rate that intervention tends to produce is often improved when GA is combined with psychotherapy that is administered by a trained professional. That seems to be particularly true when cognitive behavioral treatment is the psychotherapy approach that is used by the practitioner. Medications that have been found to be helpful in decreasing either the urge to gamble or the thrill involved in doing so include antiseizure medications like carbamazepine (Tegretol) and topiramate (Topamax), mood stabilizers like lithium (Eskalith, Lithobid), medications used to address addictions like naltrexone (ReVia), antidepressants like clomipramine (Anafranil) and fluvoxamine (Luvox). Psychotherapy appears to be more effective than any of the medications used to treat this disorder so far. Financial/debt counseling and self-help interventions may also be important aspects of the care provided to individuals with gambling addiction.
Individuals who engaged in illegal behavior in the year prior to treatment tend to have more severe symptoms of this disorder, have more gambling-related debt and to have more severe symptoms during treatment compared to people who have not engaged in illegal activity during that time period. It is therefore thought that people who engage in breaking laws in the year before treatment begins need more intensive treatment for a longer period of time, sometimes even requiring inpatient or residential treatment. Another important fact to consider in treatment for a gambling addiction is that up to 70% of people with this disorder also have another psychiatric problem. Therefore, it is not enough to just treat the gambling problem but any coexisting mental-health condition (such as alcoholism or other substance abuse, mood disorder, personality disorder) should be addressed as well in order to give the person with a gambling addiction his or her best chance for recovery from both conditions.
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