| Volunteers Needed for Gambling Study
St. Louis, Dec. 13, 1999 – Investigators at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are recruiting volunteers for a project to develop an assessment tool for diagnosing problem gambling.
The project, called GAM-IV, is funded by an $86,000 grant from the National Center for Responsible Gaming. The Department of Psychiatry’s Epidemiology and Prevention Research Group will talk to gamblers and their relatives in confidential focus groups and personal interviews and use the information they gather to develop criteria for diagnosing gambling problems.
The assessment tool is an interview to help researchers establish a standard for diagnosing pathological gambling. It also should help researchers gather more information about behavioral symptoms that lead people to uncontrollable gambling and its emotional and financial devastation. The need to study and understand pathological gambling has come to the forefront of national concerns as opportunities to gamble expand across the United States.
"We want to learn about the onset, frequency and duration of gambling symptoms and about associations between gambling and substance abuse," said Renee M. Cunningham-Williams, Ph.D., principal investigator and research assistant professor of social work in psychiatry. "We’re also interested in finding available help for those with gambling problems."
Cunningham-Williams and colleagues are looking for volunteers who gamble occasionally, as well as those who consider themselves problem gamblers. They also want to speak to those whose friends or relatives have gambling problems.
Volunteers must be at least 15 years old. They will be asked to participate in interviews or focus groups and will receive a small cash stipend for their participation. For more information, call the Epidemiology and Prevention Research Group at (314) 286-2274.
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