The need for a behavioural analysis of behavioural addictions

This review discusses research on behavioural addictions (i.e. associative learning, conditioning), with reference to contemporary models of substance addiction and ongoing controversies in the behavioural addictions literature. The role of behaviour has been well explored in substance addictions and gambling but this focus is often absent in other candidate behavioural addictions. In contrast, the standard approach to behavioural addictions has been to look at individual differences, psychopathologies and biases, often translating from pathological gambling indicators. An associative model presently captures the core elements of behavioural addiction included in the DSM (gambling) and identified for further consideration (internet gaming). Importantly, gambling has a schedule of reinforcement that shows similarities and differences from other addictions. While this is more likely than not applicable to internet gaming, it is less clear whether it is so for a number of candidate behavioural addictions. Adopting an associative perspective, this paper translates from gambling to video gaming, in light of the existing debates on this matter and the nature of the distinction between these behaviours. Finally, a framework for applying an associative model to behavioural addictions is outlined, and it's application toward treatment

A psychometric and behavioural analysis of mobile gambling

The British population are increasingly using mobile devices (e.g. smartphones, tablets) to gamble. The empirical work in this thesis looks at how the interaction of gambling’s schedule of reinforcement and mobile device behaviours accelerate the acquisition of learned maladaptive behaviours. The first four chapters report psychometric modelling of gambling prevalence data to understand problem gambling further and identify key indicators relevant to associative processes in gambling behaviour. Chapter 2 reports a taxometric analysis of problem gambling assessment data to test whether these screens measure a dimensional or latent class model, finding stronger support for the latter. However, this only identified a small taxon consisting of around 5% of gamblers endorsing more than one problem gambling symptom. Chapter 3 reports the use of latent class analysis to examine distinct subtypes of responding to different screens, findings a common three-class model that showed signs of a mixed latent structure: the same taxon as Chapter 2 was observed, but the three classes showed little overlap in symptom count. Chapter 4 reports further work modelling the sociodemographic characteristics of these different subgroups. Together the data from these chapters were used help to identify indicators of those most likely to a) be most susceptible to gambling harm and b) common to all problem gamblers. In Chapter 5 a Monte Carlo analysis was conducted to understand the efficacy of taxometric procedures on binary variables, before replicating the taxometric analysis reported in Chapter 2 using dichotomous variables and extending the work to the South Oaks Gambling Screen. The indicators derived from these chapters were then used in laboratory and field studies to study mobile gambling behaviour. The laboratory study in Chapter 6 manipulated two behavioural processes, trial spacing and partial reinforcement, that are relevant to mobile gambling behaviour, showing how a mobile-like schedule is related to increased perseverance and loss-chasing. The same paradigm was used to deliver an experiment on participants’ mobile phones in a field environment in Chapter 7. They further demonstrate that a mobile style schedule of reinforcement is associated with considerable persistence in the face of mounting losses, as participants continued to persevere in the face of losses despite a free choice to cease playing. Finally in the discussion I apply the key themes of the thesis to in-play betting, a form of play that has been heavily promoted alongside mobile gambling, and to an understanding of behavioural addictions

Criteria for conceptualizing behavioral addiction should be informed by the underlying behavioral mechanism

The criteria used to determine a behavioral addiction should be based on an understanding of the underlying psychological mechanisms. This should include an analysis of whether the behavior itself has psychological features that might externally determine the individual’s behavior

Criteria for conceptualizing behavioral addiction should be informed by the underlying behavioral mechanism

The criteria used to determine a behavioral addiction should be based on an understanding of the underlying psychological mechanisms. This should include an analysis of whether the behavior itself has psychological features that might externally determine the individual’s behavior

The relationship between smartphone use and smartphone addiction: An examination of logged and self-reported behavior in a pre-registered, two-wave sample

There has been a growing literature that has utilized logged behavior from smartphones to study the impacts of technology use on individuals. One of these proposed impacts has been that people become addicted to their smartphones. Measurements of smartphone addiction do not appear to strongly correlate with actual behavior logged from smartphones. Instead, smartphone addiction may be better explained by distress rather than disordered behavior, but this has not been adequately tested. This study examined the relative contributions of self-reported and actual smartphone behavior alongside key mental health and individual differences in a pre-registered, two-wave study with a two-week re-test. 511 smartphone users (391 at Time 2) completed measures of smartphone usage, attitudes towards smartphone usage, smartphone addiction, other behavioral addictions, mental health, and individual differences. The results suggest smartphone addiction is principally driven by perceived rather than actual usage, especially where these are discordant. Self-reported smartphone usage, other behavioral addictions, and the impulsivity facet of negative urgency are more predictive of smartphone addiction than logged behavior. These results suggest that volume of smartphone usage is insufficient in and of itself to explain problematic smartphone behavior and questions the criterion validity of smartphone addiction measurements

Trajectories of pain predict disabilities affecting daily living in arthritis

Purpose: To examine the interplay between pain and disability in arthritis when adjusting for patient heterogeneity in pain progression. There is consistent evidence to suggest that people experience osteoarthritis heterogeneously, with subgroups of people having different trajectories of pain. However, at present it is unclear how these pain trajectories are related to functional disability. We ask the question: Do levels of disability track changes in pain across different pain trajectories? Methods: Secondary analysis of a subset (n = 889) from a cohort of older English adults, representative of the general population (the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing). The relationship between pain and functional disability was compared in three domains of disability: mobility, activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living. These represent increasingly complex forms of self-care required for independent living. Data analysis compared the heterogeneous analysis of pain (different trajectories) and disability compared to treating pain as a simpler homogenous construct.Results: On a population level, pain was significantly positively correlated with increased disability in all three domains, and the relationship remained stable over time. However, when heterogeneity was examined respondents whose pain improved did not show a corresponding improvement in disability in 2 domains (ADL and mobility).Conclusions: These findings highlight how, for some people, alleviating pain, the main symptom of arthritis, might not prevent the persistence or progression of disability. Even when pain improves, further interventions that improve disability are likely to be required

How does the phrasing of house edge information affect gamblers’ perceptions and level of understanding? A registered report

The provision of information to consumers is a common input to tackling various public health issues. By comparison to the information given on food and alcohol products, information on gambling products is either not given at all, or shown in low-prominence locations in a suboptimal format, e.g. the ‘return-to-player’ format, ‘this game has an average percentage payout of 90%’. Some previous research suggests that it would be advantageous to communicate this information via the ‘house edge’ format instead: the average loss from a given gambling product, e.g. ‘this game keeps 10% of all money bet on average’. However, previous empirical work on the house edge format only uses this specific phrasing, and there may be better ways of communicating house edge information. The present work experimentally tested this original phrasing of the house edge against an alternative phrasing that has also been proposed, ‘on average this game is programmed to cost you 10% of your stake on each bet’, while both phrasings were also compared against equivalent return-to-player information (N = 3333 UK-based online gamblers). The two dependent measures were gamblers’ perceived chances of winning and a measure of participants’ correct understanding. Preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/5npy9 (date of in-principle acceptance: 28/11/2022). The alternative house edge phrasing resulted in the lowest perceived chances of winning, but the original phrasing had the highest rate of correct understanding. Compared to return-to-player information, the original phrasing had both lower perceived chances of winning and higher rates of correct understanding, while the alternative phrasing had only lower perceived chances of winning. These results replicated prior work on the advantages of the original house edge phrasing over return-to-player information, while showing that the alternative house edge phrasing has advantageous properties for gamblers’ perceived chances of winning only. The optimal communication of risk information can act as an input to a public health approach to reducing gambling-related harm

Plasma Metabolomics Identifies Lipid and Amino Acid Markers of Weight Loss in Patients with Upper Gastrointestinal Cancer

Cachexia is a multifactorial wasting syndrome associated with high morbidity and mortality in patients with cancer. Diagnosis can be difficult and, in the clinical situation, usually relies upon reported weight loss. The 'omics' technologies allow us the opportunity to study the end points of many biological processes. Among these, blood-based metabolomics is a promising method to investigate the pathophysiology of human cancer cachexia and identify candidate biomarkers. In this study, we performed liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/MS)-based metabolomics to investigate the metabolic profile of cancer-associated weight loss. Non-selected patients undergoing surgery with curative intent for upper gastrointestinal cancer were recruited. Fasting plasma samples were taken at induction of anaesthesia. LC/MS analysis showed that 6 metabolites were highly discriminative of weight loss. Specifically, a combination profile of LysoPC 18.2, L-Proline, Hexadecanoic acid, Octadecanoic acid, Phenylalanine and LysoPC 16:1 showed close correlation for eight weight-losing samples (≥5% weight loss) and nine weight-stable samples (<5%weight loss) between predicted and actual weight change (r = 0.976, p = 0.0014). Overall, 40 metabolites were associated with ≥5% weight loss. This study provides biological validation of the consensus definition of cancer cachexia (Fearon et al.) and provides feasible candidate markers for further investigation in early diagnosis and the assessment of therapeutic intervention

The mammalian gene function resource: The International Knockout Mouse Consortium

In 2007, the International Knockout Mouse Consortium (IKMC) made the ambitious promise to generate mutations in virtually every protein-coding gene of the mouse genome in a concerted worldwide action. Now, 5 years later, the IKMC members have developed highthroughput gene trapping and, in particular, gene-targeting pipelines and generated more than 17,400 mutant murine embryonic stem (ES) cell clones and more than 1,700 mutant mouse strains, most of them conditional. A common IKMC web portal (www.knockoutmouse.org) has been established, allowing easy access to this unparalleled biological resource. The IKMC materials considerably enhance functional gene annotation of the mammalian genome and will have a major impact on future biomedical research