|
|
Disclaimer: The information provided herein should not be used for diagnosis or treatment of any medical or mental condition. A state licensed clinician should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical or mental conditions. Dr. Geffner does not warrant that the information is free from all errors and omission and does not recommend, advise or suggest that any physician or other health care provider use the information as a sole resource for diagnostic or educational purposes. These questionnaires are provided for informational purposes only and are not intended to take the place of a complete psychological evaluation. Completing these questionnaires is insufficient to make, confirm, or rule out a diagnosis. In order to make a diagnosis a compete history of the gambling behavior should be taken by a professional clinician.
____________________________________________________________________________
If you have an appointment with me please complete both the SOGS and DSM-IV and bring them to your first appointment, or you can fill them out when you come in. In particular, it is not possible for a person taking these questionnaires to use them to demonstrate to themselves or another person that they do not have a problem with gambling because it is far too easy to manipulate your responses in a manner that will minimize the total score. The South Oaks Gambling Screen (called the SOGS) is a wonderful assessment tool that was designed by Dr. Henry Lesieur and Sheila Blume and has been used in hundreds of research studies. It is offered here based on the author's generous and kind permission to reproduce it as long as it is never modified in any manner or used for commercial purposes, their generous approach to this tool is greatly appreciated. To take the DSM-IV click here: DSM IV™ To take the South Oaks Gambling Screen click here: SOGS IMPORTANT NOTE: These questionnaires be can easily manipulated to underestimate the problem if you minimize and rationalize your responses. Please take these in an open manner. If an answer is partially correct then, in most cases, it would be correct to endorse it rather than reject it. Try not to get into a mental debate with the questions or get overly focused on details of the questions. In my office I have see a lot of people focus on a small part of the question and then reject it when they should not have. Here are a few examples and also a few other places where I have seen people get confused. You probably would want to take the DSM and then come back to read this list. DSM: Question 1: Are you preoccupied with gambling (e.g., preoccupied with reliving past gambling experiences, handicapping or planning the next venture, or thinking of ways to get money with which to gamble)? Here the word "preoccupied" does not mean the same as "all the time." This term really is best to be thought of as "inappropriate"; for example, thinking about gambling, planning gambling experiences, tracking outcomes, or getting money to gamble or pay off gambling debts while at work, at meals with family/friends, during daily life. 2. Do you need to gamble with increasing amounts of money in order to achieve the desired excitement? Some people seem to get over focused on the term "desired excitement" because they are not gambling for excitement. Consideration of the following questions can clarify this one a bit further: Are you gambling with more money than a few years ago? When you win does your wager size tend to increase? Would small bets become boring to you? 3. Have you made repeated unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back, or stop gambling? This question is confusing for people that have not ever tried to stop in the past, if this is your situation then you might want to honestly contemplate what it might be like if you did try to stop gambling for an extended period of time, like 6 months or a year, or forever????? 4. Are you restless or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop gambling? See number 3, also this might not apply is someone knew that they were only stopping for a short time. 5. Do you gamble as a way of escaping from problems or of relieving feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety, or depression? Does gambling make you less concerned about the damage it is causing to family, yourself, or finances. 6. After losing money gambling, do you often return another day to get even? Chasing losses is a sign of problem gambling as the disorder develops this is replaced with a feeling that "I can not ever get even so why even try." 7. Do you lie to family members, therapists, or to others to conceal the extent of involvement with gambling? This includes ANY behavior that is minimizes the time spent, the dollar amount, or any aspect of the behavior, this also would include attempt to hide the behavior in any manner. 8. Have you committed illegal acts such as forgery, fraud, theft, or embezzlement to finance gambling? This would include check fraud, such as bouncing checks or writing checks that can not be covered if immediately deposited (while the latter is not technically theft if one has overdraft protection, it might be pushing the limits of acceptable banking practices. 9. Have you jeopardized or lost a significant relationship, job or educational or career opportunity because of gambling? This can be very difficult to see at first, I have had many clients find new and better jobs after a year or more of not gambling, when they refocus on their lives. 10. Do you rely on others to provide money to relieve a desperate financial situation caused by gambling? Essentially this would be any loan from anyone, it could include lending institutions as well.
|