Post-therapy group for pathological gamblers: improvement beyond symptoms

Gambling in Brazil: a call for an open debate

“…We also offer open group debates that, on a weekly basis, discuss themes related to quality of life such as self-esteem, emotional and physical health, nutrition, relationships, work, family life, personal finance management, spirituality and leisure. We have found encouraging preliminary evidence of the utility of physical exercise in diminishing gambling craving [17,18], and quality-of-life groups in consolidating therapeutic gains for extended periods [19]. Additionally, non-published data from our routine clinical assessments reveal that almost 75% of our patients, men and women, complained of sexual dysfunction and were unsatisfied with their sex lives.Therefore, we built a post-therapy psychoeducation programme in human sexuality for gamblers completing the traditional treatment package and are currently assembling a research protocol to test its effects.…”

Development and validation of the Gambling Follow-up Scale, Self-Report version: an outcome measure in the treatment of pathological gambling

“…In the current study, factor 2 (social life), which comprises three items -two of them addressing leisure -was the sole predictor of gambling recovery, which is in keeping with findings from our own group about the relevance of quality of life for the retention of treatment gains. 38,39 Our study has certain limitations. First, despite the fact that the translation of the DSM-IV-TR criteria used in this study has been extensively used in previous clinical and epidemiological studies conducted by our group, 40 this Portuguese version still lacks formal validation.…”