scholarly journals Changes in gambling behaviour and related problems in clients seeking help in outpatient addiction care: Results from a 36-month follow-up study in Bavaria

Author(s):  
Andreas M. Bickl ◽  
Larissa Schwarzkopf ◽  
Johanna K. Loy ◽  
Bettina Grüne ◽  
Barbara Braun-Michl ◽  
...  

AbstractBackground and aimEvidence on the course of gambling disorder (GD) in clients seeking help from outpatient addiction care facilities is sparse. To close this knowledge gap, this longitudinal one-armed cohort study portrays the development of GD in help-seeking clients over a 3-year timeframe.MethodsWe investigated changes in severity of GD as well as in gambling frequency and intensity in 145 gamblers in outpatient treatment in Bavaria using generalized estimation equations (GEEs). To investigate potentially different trajectories between study participants with and without migration background (MB), additional analyses were applied with time*migration interaction. All analyses were adjusted for age, gender, education, electronic gambling machine (EGM) gambling, MB, GD, related help sought before and treatment status.ResultsWithin the entire study population, improvements in severity of GD (reduction of 39.2%), gambling intensity (reduction of 75.6%) and gambling frequency (reduction of 77.0%) were observed between baseline and 36 months of follow-up. The declines were most pronounced between baseline and follow-up 1 and stabilized thereafter. Participants with MB improved consistently less than participants without MB.Discussion and conclusionOur study suggests that severity of GD and gambling patterns improve in the context of outpatient treatment. The beneficial results furthermore persist for 36 months after treatment termination. As clients with MB seem to profit less than clients without MB, improvements in outpatient gambling services to the specific needs of this clientele are required.

2007 ◽  
Vol 93 (2) ◽  
pp. 6-11
Author(s):  
Herbert Hendin ◽  
Charles Reynolds ◽  
Dan Fox ◽  
Steven I. Altchuler ◽  
Phillip Rodgers ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT A number of factors appear to discourage physicians from seeking help for mental illness. This reluctance may be exacerbated by fears – well-founded or imagined – that by seeking help, physicians may put their medical license in jeopardy. To examine this risk, an analysis of all state medical board (SMB) license applications was followed by a seven-item survey mailed to SMB executive directors, and 70 percent responded. Follow up interviews were conducted with a sample of those not responding and also with a small group of directors whose responses were problematic. Thirteen of the 35 SMBs responding indicated that the diagnosis of mental illness by itself was sufficient for sanctioning physicians. The same states indicated that they treat physicians receiving psychiatric care differently than they do physicians receiving medical care. In follow-up interviews all 13 indicated that without evidence of impairment or misrepresentation any such sanctioning was likely to be temporary. A significant percentage (37 percent) of states sanction or have the ability to sanction physicians on the basis of information revealed on the licensing application about the presence of a psychiatric condition rather than on the basis of impairment. The same percentage state they treat physicians receiving psychiatric care differently than they do those receiving medical care. Physicians’ perceptions of this apparent discrimination is likely to play a role in their reluctance to seek help for mental health-related conditions. Suggestions are made for how SMBs and state physician health programs and state and county medical societies might collaborate in ways that while protecting patients decreases barriers to physicians help seeking.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Reilly ◽  
Marie-Paule Austin

BACKGROUND <i>Mummatters</i> is a web-based health tool that allows women to self-assess the symptoms of depression and the presence of psychosocial risk factors throughout pregnancy and the postnatal period. It aims to increase women’s awareness of their own symptoms or risk factors and their knowledge of the available support options, to encourage engagement with these support options (as appropriate), and to facilitate communication about emotional health issues between women and their health care providers. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to report the uptake of <i>mummatters</i>; the sociodemographic and psychosocial risk profiles of a subsample of users; and the acceptability, credibility, perceived effect, and motivational appeal of the tool. The help-seeking behaviors of the subsample of users and barriers to help seeking were also examined. METHODS <i>Mummatters</i> was launched in November 2016. Women who completed the <i>mummatters</i> baseline assessment were invited to complete a web-based follow-up survey 1 month later. RESULTS A total of 2817 women downloaded and used <i>mummatters</i> between November 13, 2016, and May 22, 2018, and 140 women participated in the follow-up study. Approximately half of these women (51%; 72/140) were <i>Whooley positive</i> (possible depression), and 43% (60/140) had an elevated psychosocial risk score on the Antenatal Risk Questionnaire. <i>Mummatters</i> was rated favorably by pregnant and postnatal women in terms of its acceptability (94%-99%), credibility (93%-97%), appeal (78%-91%), and potential to affect a range of health behaviors specific to supporting emotional wellness during the perinatal period (78%-93%). <i>Whooley-positive</i> women were more likely to speak with their families than with a health care provider about their emotional health. Normalizing symptoms and stigma were key barriers to seeking help. CONCLUSIONS Although <i>mummatters</i> was rated positively by consumers, only 53% (19/36) to 61% (22/36) of women with possible depression reported speaking to their health care providers about their emotional health. There was a trend for more prominent barriers to seeking help among postnatal women than among pregnant women. Future studies that investigate whether social barriers to seeking help are greater once a woman has an infant are warranted. Such barriers potentially place these women at greater risk of remaining untreated, as the demands on them are greater.


10.2196/18517 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. e18517
Author(s):  
Nicole Reilly ◽  
Marie-Paule Austin

Background Mummatters is a web-based health tool that allows women to self-assess the symptoms of depression and the presence of psychosocial risk factors throughout pregnancy and the postnatal period. It aims to increase women’s awareness of their own symptoms or risk factors and their knowledge of the available support options, to encourage engagement with these support options (as appropriate), and to facilitate communication about emotional health issues between women and their health care providers. Objective The aim of this study is to report the uptake of mummatters; the sociodemographic and psychosocial risk profiles of a subsample of users; and the acceptability, credibility, perceived effect, and motivational appeal of the tool. The help-seeking behaviors of the subsample of users and barriers to help seeking were also examined. Methods Mummatters was launched in November 2016. Women who completed the mummatters baseline assessment were invited to complete a web-based follow-up survey 1 month later. Results A total of 2817 women downloaded and used mummatters between November 13, 2016, and May 22, 2018, and 140 women participated in the follow-up study. Approximately half of these women (51%; 72/140) were Whooley positive (possible depression), and 43% (60/140) had an elevated psychosocial risk score on the Antenatal Risk Questionnaire. Mummatters was rated favorably by pregnant and postnatal women in terms of its acceptability (94%-99%), credibility (93%-97%), appeal (78%-91%), and potential to affect a range of health behaviors specific to supporting emotional wellness during the perinatal period (78%-93%). Whooley-positive women were more likely to speak with their families than with a health care provider about their emotional health. Normalizing symptoms and stigma were key barriers to seeking help. Conclusions Although mummatters was rated positively by consumers, only 53% (19/36) to 61% (22/36) of women with possible depression reported speaking to their health care providers about their emotional health. There was a trend for more prominent barriers to seeking help among postnatal women than among pregnant women. Future studies that investigate whether social barriers to seeking help are greater once a woman has an infant are warranted. Such barriers potentially place these women at greater risk of remaining untreated, as the demands on them are greater.


Author(s):  
Sarah Lawson ◽  
Helen Griffiths

AbstractDespite the global impact of substance misuse, there are inadequate levels of specialist service provision and continued difficulties with treatment engagement. Within policy and research, there is substantial consideration of the importance of these factors. However, there is little empirical evidence of the views of non-treatment-seeking substance users, who make up the majority of the substance using population. The aim of this study was to understand how these individuals make sense of their behaviour and their reasons for not accessing treatment. A constructivist grounded theory approach was used to interview eight individuals who were currently using substances and not seeking help to stop. The analysis highlighted the importance of attachment to an identity associated with substance use, and relational variables such as connectedness to others, for treatment decisions for individuals who use substances. Understanding these influences, through trauma- and attachment-informed service provision, may reduce barriers to help-seeking and improve treatment uptake.


Author(s):  
Ingmar Heinig ◽  
Hans-Ulrich Wittchen ◽  
Susanne Knappe

AbstractAlthough effective therapies exist, treatment rates of anxiety disorders (AD) are low, raising the question why affected individuals do not receive treatment. We provide data from the nationally representative German Health Interview and Examination Survey-2011 (DEGS1) on the help-seeking behavior and perceived treatment barriers of 650 subjects with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders’ (DSM-IV AD). Only 26% of all cases with AD in the community reported having had contact with mental health services because of their anxiety problems in their lifetime. 16% were currently receiving professional help, most frequently by psychotherapists (8%), psychiatrists (5%) and general practitioners (5%). 40% of all cases never even considered seeking help and 31% reported barriers to treatment, such as self-reliance (18%) or beliefs that treatments were ineffective (9%), unavailable (8%) or too stigmatizing (7%). Measures to increase treatment rates should thus target individual as well as public attitudes and health literacy to increase awareness of and access to evidence-based interventions.


Author(s):  
Monika Undorf ◽  
Iris Livneh ◽  
Rakefet Ackerman

AbstractWhen responding to knowledge questions, people monitor their confidence in the knowledge they retrieve from memory and strategically regulate their responses so as to provide answers that are both correct and informative. The current study investigated the association between subjective confidence and the use of two response strategies: seeking help and withholding answers by responding “I don’t know”. Seeking help has been extensively studied as a resource management strategy in self-regulated learning, but has been largely neglected in metacognition research. In contrast, withholding answers has received less attention in educational studies than in metacognition research. Across three experiments, we compared the relationship between subjective confidence and strategy use in conditions where participants could choose between submitting answers and seeking help, between submitting and withholding answers, or between submitting answers, seeking help, and withholding answers. Results consistently showed that the association between confidence and help seeking was weaker than that between confidence and withholding answers. This difference was found for participants from two different populations, remained when participants received monetary incentives for accurate answers, and replicated across two forms of help. Our findings suggest that seeking help is guided by a wider variety of considerations than withholding answers, with some considerations going beyond improving the immediate accuracy of one’s answers. We discuss implications for research on metacognition and regarding question answering in educational and other contexts.


Author(s):  
Minna Anneli Sorsa ◽  
Jari Kylmä ◽  
Terese Elisabet Bondas

Perinatal psychological distress (PPD) may cause delays in help-seeking in the perinatal period, which is crucial for families with small children. Help-seeking theories focus on rational processes of behavior wherein ‘help-seeking’ is viewed as a decision-making process, in which action is preceded by recognizing a problem. We identified the phase prior to actual help-seeking actions as a life situation and a phenomenon through which to gain a deeper understanding from women’s own perspectives. The aim of this study was to integrate and synthesize knowledge of women’s experiences of contemplating seeking help for PPD. We chose interpretative meta-ethnography by Noblit and Hare (1988) and implemented eMERGe guidelines in reporting. The search was performed systematically, and the 14 included studies were evaluated with Critical Appraisal Skills Programme checklist (CASP). We identified seven themes and a metaphor in a lines-of-argument synthesis, showing that contemplating help-seeking is a multidimensional phenomenon. We did not observe a straightforward and linear process (as previous research suggests) but instead a complex process of contemplating help-seeking. A clinical implication is that service providers should work with outreach and develop their tools to connect with mothers with PPD. Another suggestion is to improve training in mental health literacy prior to or during pregnancy.


2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 609-626 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Boulton ◽  
Louise Boulton

Bullying is common among school students, and some victims hold self-blaming attributions, exhibit low self-esteem, and do not seek social support. A wait-list control pre-/post-test experimental design, with random allocation, was used to assess the effects of a novel cross-age teaching of social issues (CATS) intervention on the latter 3 variables among peer-identified victims of bullying (N = 41, mean age = 14.5 years). In small cooperative groups of classmates, participants designed and delivered a lesson to younger students that informed them that bullies not victims are in the wrong, victims have no reason to feel bad about themselves, and that seeking help can be beneficial. CATS led to a significant improvement on all 3 dependent variables with mostly large effect sizes; these positive effects were even stronger with a bigger dose of intervention (6 hr vs. 4 hr), and changes in self-blame, and separately changes in self-esteem, mediated the positive effect of the intervention on help-seeking. The theoretical and practical implications of these results were discussed, especially in terms of supporting a highly vulnerable subgroup of adolescents.


2008 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg Schomerus ◽  
Matthias C. Angermeyer

SummaryAims – Many people suffering from serious mental illness do not seek appropriate medical help. The stigma of mental illness has often been considered a potential cause for reluctance in seeking help. We review recent evidence on this topic. Methods – Narrative review of the recent literature on stigma and helpseeking for psychiatric disorders. Results – There is proof of a particular stigma attached to seeking help for a mental problem. Anticipated individual discrimination and discrimination qua self-stigmatisation are associated with a reduced readiness to seek professional help for mental disorders. Intervention studies show that destigmatisation may lead to increased readiness to seek professional help, but other aspects like knowledge about mental diseases seem to be at least as important. The belief that seeking help for a mental health problem is actually helpful has been shown to be at the core of help-seeking intentions and thus offers a promising target for information programmes. Population based time-trend studies show that public attitudes towards help-seeking have improved over the last decade. Discussion – The relationship between help-seeking intentions and actual help-seeking needs further exploration. While many studies have been able to relate attitudes to intentions, predicting actual help-seeking has proved more difficult.Declaration of Interest: None.


2002 ◽  
Vol 92 (10) ◽  
pp. 555-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey S. Boberg ◽  
Molly S. Judge

A retrospective radiographic review was performed of 29 patients (37 feet) who underwent an isolated medial approach for correction of hallux abducto valgus deformity from March 1993 to November 1998. Only those patients who had a traditional Austin-type osteotomy with a reducible first metatarsophalangeal joint and flexible first ray were included in the study. The average follow-up period for the entire study group was 18.4 months, with 13 patients (44.83%; 17 feet) having a follow-up period of longer than 2 years. The average decrease in the intermetatarsal angle was 9.89°, and the average decrease in the hallux abductus angle was 14.0°, results that correlated well with those of other studies on correction of hallux abducto valgus. No clinical or radiographic recurrence of hallux abducto valgus was noted throughout the follow-up period. The authors believe that an isolated medial approach to hallux abducto valgus correction without a lateral interspace release yields predictable results when performed in appropriately selected patients. (J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 92(10): 555-562, 2002)


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