FEATURES

    They exist in a world of deception and denial, spending their earnings at the off-track betting parlor, at the casino, at the corner newsstand where lottery tickets are dispensed along with the daily papers.  They put their homes, their families - and sometimes their lives - at risk.  They're convinced that prosperity will arrive with the next roll of the dice, lottery drawing, or race result. What they find more often than the route to Easy Street, however, is a twisting, rocky path strewn with severed family ties, broken friendships, and jettisoned careers.
    Fortunately, pathological gamblers now have another resource to assist them in overcoming their compulsion.  Last May, at the invitation of the Center for Problem Gambling, the University at Albany's Center for Stress and Anxiety Disorders made therapy available to people for whom gambling had become a way of life.  The prospect of working with this particular population intrigued Edelgard Wulfert, Ph.D., a Department of Psychology faculty member who had previous experience treating men and women addicted to substance abuse. 
    The fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (1994) classifies pathological gambling as an “Impulse Control Disorder” - an affliction that leaves a person unable to “resist an impulse, drive or temptation to perform an act harmful” to himself or others.  However, the disorder “shares many features with an addiction,” contends Wulfert, who has taught at UAlbany since 1988.  Concealment of the amount of money spent and the frequency of the gambling; denial that there is a problem; and the impairment of social, vocational, and/or educational functioning - gambling to the exclusion of all else, or even stealing or engaging in other illegal activities to obtain money for gambling - are signs of addiction.  So are “cravings”; withdrawal, the stage where the gambler becomes irritable when unable to indulge in his favorite activity; and tolerance, a need to spend more on gambling and to gamble more often.  “On the one hand, the pathological gambler can see the detrimental effects of the behavior on his life,” Wulfert maintains.  “On the other, the behavior and its consequences are extremely appealing, enticing, rewarding.”
    As a result, a pathological gambler often seeks treatment only after a confrontation with a “significant other,” according to Wulfert, who won Excellence in Teaching awards from both UAlbany and the State University of New York in 1997.  Often, that help comes in the form of a 12-step program.  While Wulfert acknowledges that 12-step programs - which recognize a higher power - “can be very effective,” she worked with Center for Stress and Anxiety Disorders Director Edward B. Blanchard to devise a program known as Motivationally Enhanced Cognitive Therapy.   Through this three-part course of treatment, Wulfert meets individually with eight participants in an effort to help them recognize that “the dream of winning money is very destructive and ill-conceived” and to accept that “no strategy will help the gambler to beat the odds.” She also impresses upon her patients the importance of lifestyle changes, which “make people successful [in fighting the compulsion to gamble].  A significant lifestyle change may involve going back to school or changing careers; it focuses the energies that used to be invested in gambling on more constructive areas.  That’s what we do with other addictions, as well,” she notes.
    Wulfert adapted the cognitive component of the therapy program from a treatment devised by Canadian scientist Robert Ladouceur.  That treatment, which “was tested mainly with individuals addicted to casino gambling,” or games of chance, has been tailored for use with patients who indulge in gambling requiring a “skill.”  In horse racing, for example, knowledge of the animals’ and jockeys’ past performance may increase the bettor's chances of predicting the outcome of a race.
    Another interesting aspect of the treatment, says Wulfert, focuses on the dearth of research evidence on the role of “cue reactivity” in gambling.  “At the beginning and the end of treatment, we expose gamblers to certain gambling cues, and measure heart rate and respiration to see if there are changes.  Physiological arousal, subjectively experienced as excitement, seems to be a very important part of gambling.  We are interested in figuring out what role arousal plays in the maintenance of compulsive gambling.”
    The treatment requires 15 to 20 visits with each patient.  Upon completion of the sessions, some individuals seek couples counseling; others join a group sponsored by the Center for Problem Gambling.  Others opt not to receive any aftercare.  The Center for Stress and Anxiety Disorders follows up with participants for one year after treatment has concluded to monitor their progress.
    Relapse is always a possibility where addiction is concerned, but Wulfert is encouraged about her patients’ prospects for success:  Four have successfully completed the program and are currently in follow-up, and four are still attending therapy sessions.  “Previous research indicates that there is a very high dropout rate in individuals who start treatment for gambling.  I hope that the motivational aspect of our treatment will give my people the power to change their lives,” she adds.
    Even after the men and women she is now treating move on, however, it isn't likely that Wulfert will be idle:  Pathological gambling is a growing problem in the United States.  “What alcoholism was years ago, gambling is now,” observes Wulfert.  And there's a reason for that: “Incontrovertible data in the literature indicate that, as you increase gambling opportunities, problem gambling will rise.”  In other words, new games of chance and bigger jackpots tend to create more pathological gamblers.  In addition, there is the concept of co-morbidity - the simultaneous existence of two or more addictions in the same individual.  “We want to look at how [addictive] behaviors are interrelated, and explore the factors - personality, impulsivity, context - that might explain that interrelationship,” comments Wulfert, a native of Germany who earned her degrees at Iteso Technological Institute in Mexico and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
    This spring, in an effort to make UAlbany students more aware of addictions and their consequences, Wulfert began offering a very well-received addictions course for junior and senior psychology majors.  The class boasts an enrollment of 35; many other students had to be turned away.  Although gambling is a small part of the course material currently, Wulfert anticipates expanding that topic.
    As Wulfert also awaits news of a grant application she recently submitted to the National Institute of Mental Health requesting support for the Motivationally Enhanced Cognitive Therapy program, she reflects that her work during the past nine months has been “very rewarding.”  Pathological gamblers, she notes, are “generally very intelligent, complex individuals, and they are interesting to work with.”
    Just as rewarding as the interaction with her patients is the prospect of having a positive influence on their lives.  Observes Wulfert, “It is immensely gratifying to see a person 'beat the odds' - no pun intended - by giving up an addiction and leading a productive life.”

   Given the location of the University at Albany's Nuclear Accelerator Laboratory - it’s tucked away in the east basement of the Earth Science building, below Carillon Drive - most faculty, students, and staff are probably oblivious to its existence, much less its purpose.  But the staff of Harvard University’s Semitic Museum are aware that it exists:  Since October 1999, UAlbany physics professors William Lanford and Thomas Hickmott have been using a piece of the lab's equipment to identify the composition of components of an antiquities collection the museum owns.
    Lanford and Hickmott undertook the archeometry project at the request of Stuart Swiny, a Department of Classics professor who also directs the University's Institute of Cypriot Studies.  Swiny's wife, Helena Wylde Swiny, curates the Semitic Museum's Cesnola Collection from Ancient Cyprus, which contains more than 1,300 artifacts excavated in the 19th century by General Luigi de Palma Cesnola.  When Cesnola, the United States' consul to Cyprus, returned to the U.S., he brought with him an impressive array of artifacts that included figurines, lamps, vessels, and other objects fashioned from stone, glass, metal, and ceramic that later formed the founding collection of New York’s Metropolitan Museum.  Stanford University, which subsequently acquired part of the Met collection, turned over a portion of it to Harvard five years ago.  Harvard found a home for the objects in the Semitic Museum, which currently features exhibits of archaeological materials from Old Kingdom Egypt and the ancient city of Nuzi, established 4,000 years ago in what is now Iraq, in addition to the Cesnola collection.
    Although the Cesnola pieces date from 2300 B.C. to A.D. 700, the materials they were made from remained a mystery.  Swiny, whose interest lies primarily in ancient metal objects, “thought it would be interesting to find out more about the items” - among them “a number of ancient Greek mirrors measuring about four inches in diameter.”  The highly polished bronze disks - some with handles, some without - resemble the compacts or pocket mirrors people carry today.
    Swiny, who lived in Cyprus for more than 25 years and directed a research center there, turned to the Department of Physics for assistance in analyzing the mirrors.  Hickmott, a Northwestern Ph.D. who came to UAlbany as an adjunct after a distinguished career spent with such corporations as IBM and General Electric, and Lanford, who taught at Michigan State and Yale after earning his doctorate at the University of Rochester, rose to the challenge.
    Using a technique known as X-ray induced X-ray fluorescence, the professors set about determining the elements present in the artifacts.  Explained Lanford:  “The method makes use of the fact that elements can be uniquely identified by the X-rays they emit.  Atoms consist of an atomic nucleus surrounded by atomic electrons in various shells.  Normally, the first few - or lowest energy - of these atomic shells are completely filled with electrons.  However, if an atom is stimulated in such a way as to knock out one of the electrons in the lowest shell, the vacancy created will quickly be filled by an electron from a higher energy shell.  In this process, an X-ray is emitted and can be used to identify the element in which this transition occurred.”
    “In our instrument,” he continued, “objects to be analyzed are bombarded with radiation from a radioactive source.  This radiation knocks some electrons out of the atoms present in the artifact, resulting in the emission of X-rays characteristic of the element present in it.  The number of X-rays emitted is proportional to the concentration of the element.”
    Recently, Lanford demonstrated the X-ray fluorescence equipment.  The instrument, which he assembled in the 1980s, consists of a keyboard, a monitor, and an X-ray detector resembling a large metal tank with a spigot attached.  The object to be analyzed is held in front of, or taped to, the spigot, which emits a low dose of radiation.  Analysis results appear on the monitor as a graph.  The machine can determine the elemental composition in materials including bronze, sterling silver, and gold alloys, and the trace elements in such materials as obsidian and ceramics.
    Over the years, a number of anthropology students have found the X-ray fluorescence apparatus useful in studying various artifacts.  “One of the first such students was Robert Kuhn, now the chief archaeologist for the New York State Department of Parks and Historic Preservation.  For his Ph.D. thesis, he studied Native American artifacts from New York to determine the sources of materials, such as cherts and clays, used to make particular objects.  From this information, he was able to determine patterns of pre-European trade.  Dr. Kuhn has continued to use this instrument over the years and recently wrote a paper discussing the origin of the Iroquois Confederation,” recalled Lanford. 
    More recently, Adrian Burke, who earned his Ph.D. this winter, used X-ray fluorescence to analyze artifacts pertinent to the study of Native Americans in New York and Canada.  Working with anthropology department professor Michael Smith, Burke also analyzed “a large number of Central American artifacts to determine the geologic source of the materials” from which they were made.  “We have analyzed hundreds or thousands of obsidian artifacts from Central America,” noted Lanford, who, as a professor in both the physics and classics departments, may be the only science faculty member at UAlbany to hold a joint appointment in the humanities.  “In most cases, we were able to identify the source of the obsidian based on trace element contents.  Such information gives unique and important information about trade patterns of pre-European civilizations.” 
    Even the State of New York has used the instrument.  According to Lanford, years ago, the state “decided to return to one of our tribes some wampum belts held by the state museum, but they were first brought here for X-ray fluorescence analysis.  I recall it well because when the belts were here, they were always under the protection of armed guards.”
    The archaeometry project should be concluded by the end of the spring semester.  By February, approximately 15 of the 60 or so objects in the collection had been analyzed.  They were determined to be bronze, with a composition of about 10 to 12 percent tin, said Swiny, a  UAlbany faculty member since January 1996.  He will collaborate with Lanford and Hickmott on a research paper detailing the findings.
    Swiny, who plans to return to Cyprus this summer for an eight-week excavation with about a dozen of his students, is grateful that the X-ray fluorescence instrument exists.  “When I ran the research center in Cyprus and wanted to do metal analysis, I always had to get outside people involved.  Here at the University, we can do it on our own,” observed the University of London graduate.
    For his part, Lanford is delighted to be involved with the project.  “I have always had a serious interest in the arts and in archaeology, and this is one way in which I feel I can contribute,” he commented.  “This sort of analysis has always been a ‘sideline’ for me, but it is exactly the sort of thing researchers at a university should do.”