Barriers to Help-seeking for a Gambling Problem: The Experiences of Gamblers Who Have Sought Specialist Assistance and the Perceptions of Those Who Have Not

This paper presents barriers to help-seeking data as reported by users of a national gambling helpline (help-seekers, HS, N = 125) as well as data pertaining to perceived barriers to seeking help as reported by gamblers recruited from the general population (non-help-seekers, NHS, N = 104). All data were collected via a structured, multi-modal survey. When asked to identify actual or perceived barriers to seeking help, responses indicative of pride (78% of HS participants, 84% of NHS participants), shame (73% of HS participants, 84% of NHS participants) or denial (87% of NHS participants) were most frequently reported. These three factors were also most often identified as the real or perceived primary barrier to help-seeking (collectively accounting for 55% of HS, and 60% of NHS, responses to this question) and were the only barriers to be identified by more than 10% of either HS and NHS participants without prompting. It was of note, however, that participants in both groups identified multiple barriers to help-seeking (mean of 6.7 and 12.2, respectively) and that, when presented with a list of 21 possible barrier items, NHS participants endorsed 19 of the listed items significantly more often than their HS counterparts. The implications of these findings, with respect to promoting greater or earlier help-seeking activity amongst problem gamblers, are discussed.

Impulse Control Disorder Behaviors Associated with Pramipexole Used to Treat Fibromyalgia

Objective: Compulsivity has been associated with use of dopamine agonists used to treat Parkinson’s disease (PD). Increasing use of these agents to treat fibromyalgia (FM) raises concern for this unexpected toxicity in a new group of patients. This is the first report of compulsive gambling and shopping among patients taking dopamine agonists for treatment of FM. Design: A retrospective chart review of all patients in a large, active FM research practice was used to identify compulsivity associated with dopamine agonists and describe its remission following dug withdrawal. Results: Of 3006 patients with FM treated between 2002 and 2006, 1356 had taken ≥1 dose of a dopamine agonist ( >95% pramipexole). Twenty-one (3 male, 18 female) were identified with compulsive gambling (33%), shopping (40%) or both (27%) after taking a 4.5 mg mean dose of pramipexole at bedtime for 14.4 ± 14.9 months. Compulsivity resolved in 3–10 days for 19 of 21 patients and by 3 months for all following a monitored, compulsory tapered discontinuation over 7 days. Conclusions: While biologic aspects of PD and FM differ considerably, compulsive gambling and shopping have become important, yet unexpected concerns related to use of dopamine agonists for patients with FM and their treating clinicians.     

Wealth Holdings and Portfolio Allocation of the Elderly: The Role of Marital History

This paper investigates the role of marital history in terms of explaining differences in wealth holdings and portfolio allocation of older individuals by studying data from the first wave of Health and Retirement Study which was conducted in 1992. The results generally suggest that both men and women suffer from the negative shocks of past marital dissolutions in terms of household wealth accumulation. The significance level, however, differs across currently married couples, single males, and single females. The examination of the asset components of net worth also indicates that both the probability of owning a particular asset and the fraction of wealth allocated to that asset might vary depending on the elderly individuals’ marital history.

Professors,Ideology and Housework

This paper presents, for the first time, multivariate analyses of Canadian national data and tests the relationship between class-based egalitarianism and housework for married and cohabiting male and female university professors in 2000. Consistent with evidence in the general population, gender accounts for more variation in housework than a host of other predictors (i.e., class- and gender-based ideology, institutional contexts and resources, available time, presence of children, age, minority racial status, and religiosity). Nevertheless, these forces play important roles in increasing or decreasing domestic labor contributions of both male and female academics. Among these, professors who possess class-based egalitarian views do more housework, and egalitarianism increases domestic labor contributions of males and decreases that of females.     

Embodied cognitive neuroscience and its consequences for psychiatry

Recent years have seen the emergence of a new interdisciplinary field called embodied or enactive cognitive science. Whereas traditional representationalism rests on a fixed inside–outside distinction, the embodied cognition perspective views mind and brain as a biological system that is rooted in body experience and interaction with other individuals. Embodiment refers to both the embedding of cognitive processes in brain circuitry and to the origin of these processes in an organism’s sensory–motor experience. Thus, action and perception are no longer interpreted in terms of the classic physical–mental dichotomy, but rather as closely interlinked. This paper describes the cycles of brain–organism interaction, of sensory–motor interaction with the environment and of embodied interaction with others. The brain is then interpreted as an organ of modulation and transformation that mediates the cycles of organism–environment interaction. Finally, consequences of the embodied and enactive approach for psychiatry are pointed out, in particular for a circular concept of mental illness.     

Education and survival: Birth cohort,period, and age effects

Previous studies have found that educational differences in mortality are weaker among the elderly. In this study I examine whether either cohort or period effects may have influenced the interpretation of age effects. Six 10-year birth cohorts are followed over 30 years through decennial censuses. Differential survival is inferred from changes in the relative proportions of a cohort in each education category as the cohort ages. In cross-section, younger persons generally show stronger education effects on survival, although this pattern is clearer for women than for men. There is evidence of period effects. Within cohorts, relative survival tends to increase with age.     

Panel Quantile Regressions and the Subjective Well-Being in Urban China: Evidence from RUMiC Data

Using RUMiC data and a simple panel quantile regression method, this paper accounts for the time-invariant individual specific characteristics and investigates the heterogeneous effects of factors on the distribution of subjective well-being (SWB, measured by GHQ-12) in urban China. Comparing results from the pooled regression and fixed effect regression, we find that most results from pooled regressions are likely overestimated. Panel quantile regression results show that income affects the least happy 10 % group twice as much as the happiest 10 % people. Being unemployed brings down the happiness level by 0.97 points on average, but individuals with high SWB seem to be not significantly affected. The complete picture of the relationship between SWB and various factors would have been veiled without using quantile techniques. This paper therefore not only contributes to the happiness literature in China, but also adds evidence to stylized findings going beyond the average.     

Handling precedence constraints in scheduling problems by the sequence pair representation

In this paper, we show that sequence pair (SP) representation, primarily applied to the rectangle packing problems appearing in the VLSI industry, can be a solution representation of precedence constrained scheduling. We present three interpretations of sequence pair, which differ in complexity of schedule evaluation and size of a corresponding solution space. For each interpretation we construct an incremental precedence constrained SP neighborhood evaluation algorithm, computing feasibility of each solution in the insert neighborhood in an amortized constant time per examined solution, and prove the connectivity property of the considered neighborhoods. To compare proposed interpretations of SP, we construct heuristic and metaheuristic algorithms for the multiprocessor job scheduling problem, and verify their efficiency in the numerical experiment.     

Young Adult Gambling Behaviors and their Relationship with the Persistence of ADHD

Young adulthood is a period renowned for engagement in impulsive and risky behaviors, including gambling. There are some indications that young adults exhibit higher gambling rates in comparison to older adults. Problem gambling has also been linked to ADHD. This longitudinal study examines the relationship between gambling and ADHD among an epidemiological sample of young adults (n = 235; males = 179, females = 56) aged 18-24. Results indicate that individuals who report childhood ADHD symptoms which persist into young adulthood experience greater gambling problem severity than participants with no ADHD or those with non-persistent ADHD.     

Going it alone and adrift: the socioeconomic profile and parental involvement of single-father and single-mother families in post-industrial Taiwan

In spite of the rising prevalence of marital dissolution in Asia over the past decades, little is known about single-parent families in Asia. The present study aims to contribute to the literature by investigating the changing socioeconomic characteristics and parental involvement (measured by parent–child activities and parental awareness of children) of single-father and single-mother families in Taiwan around the millennium. Using a nationally representative sample of 641 single fathers and 730 single mothers from the Taiwan Social Trend Survey collected in 1998, 2002 and 2006, this study found that the apparent socioeconomic advantage of single-father families over single-mother families has weakened. Parent–child activities and parental awareness are lower for single fathers than for single mothers and married fathers. The association between higher parental education and more parent–child activities and parental awareness is more pronounced among single fathers than among single mothers. The presence of co-residential grandparents is associated with lower parent–child activities with pre-teen children among single mothers. The results warrant greater attention to the wellbeing and development of adults and children from low SES single-father families in post-industrial Taiwan.