Cormorbidity in Pathological Gambling Conference
13 November 2000
A large percentage of compulsive gamblers have comorbid conditions, meaning that they suffer from one or more pathological conditions, such as depression or alcoholism, in addition to their gambling addiction.
The National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) is holding a conference in Las Vegas from December 3-5 entitled "The Comorbidity of Pathological Gambling; A Current Research Synthesis." The conference will continue the dialogue initiated by the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences.
Topics for discussion will include recent studies about pathological gambling, genetic contributions to pathological gambling, how brain chemistry relates to comorbid pathological gambling, the legal implications of comorbidity, youth gambling etc. In addition, the issue of treatment will be discussed in depth. This topic will include the role of natural recovery, intervention strategies and relapse prevention. The conference will also cover comorbidity from a Native American perspective.
The National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences has concluded, "the co-occurrence of other disorders with pathological gambling may be one of the most important and influential indicators of the pathways into and out of pathological gambling."
The National Center for Responsible Gaming will build on the important work of the NRC by assembling the leaders in comorbidity research for dialogue with gambling researchers and others interested in the field. The objective is to stimulate a fresh approach to the issue of comorbidity and develop recommendations that will advance the field of gambling research.
The conference is open to academic researchers, new investigators, treatment providers, gaming industry representatives, government officials, including regulators, journalists and interested members of the general public.
The National Center for Responsible Gaming is a division of the Gaming Entertainment Research & Education Foundation which was incorporated in 1996 to operate as an independent nonprofit organization engaged in the support of research on problem gambling and the development and promotion of educational programs on problem and underage gambling.
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