Vol VIII, No. 2, 2008 11

COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL THERAPY IN PATHOLOGICAL GAMBLING; A CASE ANALYSIS

The paper describes a cognitive-behavioral intervention in the case of a 29 year-old patient brought to therapy by his mother and girlfriend due to excessive gambling, (roulette and slot machine games). The patient was diagnoses with pathological gambling, meeting 9 of 10 DSM-IV-TR criteria for this diagnosis. Also, he scored very high (18) on the 20-questions questionnaire of Gamblers Anonymous (USA). His case was approached by a two-fold intervention: (1) medication: Trileptal (Oxcarbazepine) in a dosage of 3x1 tb/day (1 tablet=300 mg), for 6 months and (2) cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) over 20 sessions, delivered in a 1 session/week format for the first 3 months, followed by 1 session every other week, and by 1 monthly session towards the end. The CBT package comprised hypnosis and self-hypnosis techniques and REBT techniques. The evolution of the case was favorable.