Harvard Study Challenges Problem Gambling Perceptions - 02-19-08

February 19 -A recent study at the Harvard  Medical School concluded that the popular view help about compulsive gambling is inaccurate. It is commonly though that problem gamblers rarely get cured, but the new study disproves this theory and that recovery occurs more frequently than commonly thought.

The "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders", an reference frequently used by psychiatrists when analyzing and diagnosing mental health disorders, states that problem gambling is always "persistent and recurrent". However, Harvard Professor Debi Plante, quoted in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, writes that the study shows that problem gambling "appears to be dynamic, with individuals moving back and forth between health and more disordered states, and with a higher rate of recovery than previously assumed."

The research considered the results of five major inquiries into the nature of compulsive gambling. Prof. Plante stated that there is no evidence that problem gamblers are incapable of improving. On the contrary, nearly a third of those studied showed significant improvement.

In more research funded by the National Institutes for Health, Professor Wendy Slutske of the University of Missouri-Columbia concluded that "a substantial portion of individuals with a history of pathological gambling eventually recover."

These studies highlight the incorrect assumptions made by problem gambling and dispel the theory that addictive gamblers cannot be helped by education, and that the problem only increases. Instead it points out that many gamblers can be treated effectively.

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