Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Gambling Addiction

This chapter contains a brief history of gambling and a brief description of gambling disorders, followed by the risks that this behavior would become compulsive and the negative consequences that the gambler and the members of this family would experience. Thereafter, the psychological characteristics of the compulsive gambler will be specified, as results from the recent international researches, and we will also describe the psychological profile of the Romanian compulsive gambler. Next, we will approach the various methods of treatment of gambling addiction, focusing on the forms of psychotherapy that proved to be effective in treating this mental disorder, and listing of certain studies that have demonstrated their effectiveness

The specificity of pathological gambling

AbstractPathological gambling is classified as an impulse-control disorder, although it has much in common with substance dependence and its treatment is based on treatment of substance abuse (Petry, 2005). This disorder is often accompanied by mood, anxiety, antisocial personality or substance use disorder; about three quarters of problem gamblers suffer severe depression. Psychological treatments, mainly approaches that try to change cognitive distortions about gambling, have the most empirical support. Current studies agree that CBT interventions appear to be the most effective treatment of problem gambling (Blaszczynski, 2010; Toneatto & Millar, 2004; Raylu & Oei, 2010)

Anxiety in Home-Quarantined Patients with COVID-19

One of the challenges of the current pandemic in Romania has been the monitoring of COVID-19 positive patients isolated at home by their family doctors. There was no legal framework or experience in remote medical consultations and there were no clear and comprehensive guidelines for therapeutic management at the beginning of this study. As the pandemic evolved, one of the problems identified from practical experience was that anxiety in this category of patients is an underestimated factor. The present study aimed to provide some clarifying data on the level, determinants, effects and methods of addressing anxiety in COVID-19 patients isolated at home. This approach started on a number of N = 107 patients to whom demographic data were collected and an anxiety questionnaire was applied by telephone. In the next stage, in order to obtain valid results in a timely manner, an online questionnaire was completed by 71 family physicians from Galati County, Romania. Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis was performed using Excel and SPSS software. The results showed that the level and importance of anxiety in these patients are underestimated and one of the key factors to avoid negative endings (delayed hospitalization or unjustified hospitalization) is the self-determination of peripheral oxygen saturation.</p

Commentary: Suggesting shinrin-yoku (forest bathing) for treating addiction

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Proposal for a cognitive model to the treatment of pathological gambling

AbstractPathological gambling is a psychological disorder that usually begins as an enjoyable activity, but in time, some gamblers become addicted to gambling. The development of clinical strategies for the treatment of pathological gambling is in its early stages (Gooding & Tarrier, 2009; Korn & Schaffer, 2004). We propose a cognitive counseling model which is intended to assist practitioners with the assessment and treatment of pathological gambling. The proposed model reflects the findings of the literature review of the treatment of pathological gambling (Blaszczynsky, 2010; Coombs, 2004; Korn & Schaffer, 2004; Petry, 2005; Raylu & Oei, 2010; Toneatto & Millar, 2004)

Essays In Corporate Governance

Corporate governance represents the collection of ways in which suppliers of finance to corporations assure themselves of getting a return on their investment. This dissertation first reviews the various corporate governance mechanisms that have been extensively studied in prior research. Then, I develop two original essays that study the effectiveness of two mechanisms of corporate governance, namely the presence of multiple blockholders beyond the largest owner and the external monitoring by high-quality auditors. Additionally, I investigate how a country\u27s legal institutions interact with these mechanisms. In the first essay, I investigate the impact of multiple large shareholders on the relation between cash holdings and firm value for a sample of 2,723 firms from 22 countries. I find that the presence of multiple large shareholders enhances the value of firm\u27s cash. I show that the value of cash is positively associated with an even distribution of blockholders\u27 voting rights and with higher control contestability of the largest shareholder. The results also offer new evidence that the value of cash holdings is not monotonic across firms in economies with a good institutional environment. Overall, the results of the first essay contribute to the literature on corporate governance by showing that multiple large shareholders improve internal monitoring and moderate the agency costs of a firm\u27s liquid assets. In the second essay, I examine the importance of Big Four audits to reducing agency costs evident in corporate debt maturity worldwide. Analyzing a large sample of public firms from 42 countries reveals that the fraction of long-term debt in firms\u27 capital structures rises with the presence of a Big Four auditor, suggesting that higher-quality audits substitute for short-term debt for monitoring purposes. In evidence supporting another two predictions, I find that the role that auditor choice plays in debt maturity is concentrated in firms from countries with strong institutions governing property rights and creditor rights. Collectively, the results of the second essay imply that Big Four audits matter to corporate debt maturity, although the impact is isolated in firms operating in countries with more protective legal regimes