UNMC psychologist looks into new ways to treat gambling addiction
Pathological gambling has become a significant public health problem with the proliferation of legalized gambling across the United States.
Currently, there is no standard drug therapy for pathological gambling, but University of Nebraska Medical Center psychologist, Dennis P. McNeilly, PsyD., is investigating whether a drug used to help alcoholics abstain from drinking also will help pathological gamblers.
Acamprosate, sold under the brand name Campral, is the focus of a clinical trial currently underway at UNMC. The drug is known to block the receptors in the brain that give a pleasurable response to alcohol consumption and diminish the desire to drink. Dr. McNeilly is hoping the drug will have the same effect for pathological gamblers.
“We know from neuroimaging studies of pathological gamblers that certain brain mechanisms get shut off as others are triggered when a person gambles,” he said. “Pathological gamblers can crave the excitement or euphoria they get from gambling, much the same as an alcoholic craves drinking. Unfortunately, they also find themselves unable to stop. These individuals often arrange their days and lifestyles around gambling and opportunities to gamble.”
Dr. McNeilly and his partners, Martin Wetzel, M.D, assistant professor, UNMC Department of Psychiatry, and Donald Black M.D., University of Iowa Department of Psychiatry, began enrolling study participants in November. He said they hope to enroll 20 people in the study.
Once enrolled study participants are given Campral to take three times a day for eight weeks. No placebo is being used in the study. To be eligible a person must be 19 years or older, actively gambling and have tried to stop but been unable to do so.
Dr. McNeilly has been conducting studies in persons with pathological gambling since 1998, when he first began to see older adults with gambling problems. A nationally recognized expert and researcher on problem and pathological gambling in older adults, Dr. McNeilly is the president of the National Council on Problem Gambling and was recently appointed by Gov. Heineman to the Nebraska State Committee on Problem Gambling.
For more information, contact the Psychopharmacology Research Consortium at 552-6005.
UNMC is the only public health science center in the state. Its educational programs are responsible for training more health professionals practicing in Nebraska than any other institution. Through their commitment to education, research, patient care and outreach, UNMC and its hospital partner, The Nebraska Medical Center, have established themselves as one of the country’s leading centers in cancer, transplantation biology, bioterrorism preparedness, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, genetics, biomedical technology and ophthalmology. UNMC’s research funding from external sources now exceeds $80 million annually and has resulted in the creation of more than 2,400 highly skilled jobs in the state. UNMC’s physician practice group, UNMC Physicians, includes 513 physicians in 50 specialties and subspecialties who practice primarily in The Nebraska Medical Center. For more information, go to UNMC’s Web site at www.unmc.edu.
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