The Effect of Research Compensation in the Form of Cheques on Gamblers' Cash-in Behaviour

A view that is commonly held by Research Ethics Board members is that offering money as research compensation has the potential to unduly influence or even coerce subjects into participating in studies. Because money is the core resource of gambling activity, gamblers with financial needs might show an increased propensity to take part in research that offers financial compensation. We hypothesized that pathological gamblers at electronic gambling machines in venues outside of casinos would tend to cash in their compensation cheque faster than non-pathological gamblers would. The current results support this hypothesis. It is therefore necessary to understand gamblers' motivations related to research activities and the ways in which the research context can sustain rational decision making when gamblers consider taking part in scientific studies.

Alcohol use following an alcohol challenge and a brief intervention among alcohol-dependent individuals

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

The study examined the effects of an alcohol challenge on naturalistic drinking among alcohol-dependent individuals and explored brief motivational interviewing (MI) as a potential intervention for these participants.

METHOD

Alcohol-dependent individuals (n = 32, eight females) completed the intake assessment, alcohol challenge, one MI session, and 1-month follow-up (87.5% retention) where they completed measures of drinking and motivation for change.

RESULTS

As expected, multilevel mixed models revealed that drinking did not increase post-alcohol challenge. Participants reported a reduction in ambivalence, drinking days, and a trend towards fewer total drinks between the MI and 1-month follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS

Consistent with other studies, the alcohol challenge did not worsen alcohol use. Results support further investigation of brief MI for alcohol-dependent participants in alcohol challenges.

SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE

Alcohol administration to alcohol-dependent participants appears to not exacerbate naturalistic drinking. MI may be a feasible intervention for non-treatment seeking alcohol-dependent participants in alcohol challenge studies.

Alcohol abuse and acute lung injury: can we target therapy?

Recent studies have revealed an important but previously unrecognized association between alcohol abuse and the risk of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). This devastating form of lung injury strikes individuals of any age following insults, such as major trauma or sepsis, and even with state-of-the-art medical care it has a mortality as high as 50%. Although the precise incidence is unknown, it is estimated that 200,000 individuals develop ARDS each year in the USA alone. Alcohol abuse independently increases the risk approximately two- to fourfold and, therefore, causes tens of thousands of excess deaths annually. When one couples these grim estimates with the well-recognized association between alcohol abuse and severe lung infections, such as bacterial pneumonia and tuberculosis, it is apparent that alcohol-related lung diseases are a major public health problem. Exciting new studies reveal that the alcoholic lung is characterized by discrete changes in cellular function within the lower airways, mediated via oxidant stress and altered signaling pathways and, in experimental models, is highly amenable to targeted therapies. Furthermore, these therapies are already used clinically for other conditions and could readily be tested in clinical studies of alcoholics at high risk for ARDS and/or with severe lung infections. This article focuses on the epidemiology and pathophysiology of alcohol-induced lung dysfunction and discusses potential new treatments that are suggested by recent experimental findings.

Predictors of mental health, subjective burden, and rewards in family caregivers of patients with chronic liver disease

Patients with chronic liver disease (CLD) often experience severe symptoms that cause functional impairment and necessitate assistance from a family caregiver. Few studies investigate family caregivers of patients with CLD. This descriptive correlation study described demographic characteristics, depressive and anxiety symptom levels, and prevalence of hazardous drinking, rewards, and subjective burden and explicated predictors of subjective burden and mental health status for a convenience sample of 73 family caregivers of persons with CLD. Interventions are needed to offset decreased income reported by caregivers and to treat depressive symptoms; clinically significant levels were present, and clinical referrals were warranted in this study sample.

Pharmacological research on addictions: a framework for ethical and policy considerations

Findings from neuroscience research hold promise for improved treatments for and prevention of substance use disorders (SUD), but ethical concerns about psychopharmacological research involving SUD may potentially undermine scientific progress. This article reviews the literature pertaining to seven ethical requirements that elucidate a coherent framework for evaluating the ethics of clinical SUD research protocols. Those requirements are social or scientific value, scientific validity, fair subject selection, favorable risk-benefit ratio, independent review, informed consent, and respect for potential or enrolled subjects. An evidence-based analysis suggests that sound pharmacological research in SUD can safeguard the welfare of research participants while collecting valuable scientific data and benefiting society.

The relations of trait anxiety, anxiety sensitivity, and sensation seeking to adolescents' motivations for alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use

The present study investigated relations of anxiety sensitivity and other theoretically relevant personality factors to Copper's [Psychological Assessment 6 (1994) 117.] four categories of substance use motivations as applied to teens' use of alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana. A sample of 508 adolescents (238 females, 270 males; mean age = 15.1 years) completed the Trait subscale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children, the Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI), and the Intensity and Novelty subscales of the Arnett Inventory of Sensation Seeking. Users of each substance also completed the Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised (DMQ-R) and/or author-compiled measures for assessing motives for cigarette smoking and marijuana use, respectively. Multiple regression analyses revealed that, in the case of each drug, the block of personality variables predicted "risky" substance use motives (i.e., coping, enhancement, and/or conformity motives) over-and-above demographics. High intensity seeking and low anxiety sensitivity predicted enhancement motives for alcohol use, high anxiety sensitivity predicted conformity motives for alcohol and marijuana use, and high trait anxiety predicted coping motives for alcohol and cigarette use. Moreover, anxiety sensitivity moderated the relation between trait anxiety and coping motives for alcohol and cigarette use: the trait anxiety-coping motives relation was stronger for high, than for low, anxiety sensitive individuals. Implications of the findings for improving substance abuse prevention efforts for youth will be discussed.