It was great to welcome Dr Bryan Singer, Director of the Singer Lab, University of Sussex to Swansea for a talk on pre-clinical modelling of vulnerability to drug and behavioural addictions. Looking forward to many more fruitful collaborations on this important translational topic!
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The Gambling Research, Education and Treatment (GREAT) Network Wales, in collaboration with Public Health Wales, hosted a successful event on ‘Gambling Harm in Diverse Settings’ in Cardiff, April 2024. The event featured presentations from James Grimes (Gambling With Lives), Amanda Roberts (University of Lincoln), Tony Parente, Reece Casey, and Tracy O’Shaughnessy (GamLEARN), and Steve Sharman (King’s College London), lived experience panels and excellent networking opportunities.
You can check out images from the event on X/Twitter here and on LinkedIn here.
Some of the GREAT Team after the event!
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Introducing the world’s first Centre for Military Gambling Research (MilGam).
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Check out the ACTIVATE study website, funded by the OVA: https://actvet.uk/
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Simon attended the knowledge exchange symposium, The Brain and Risky Choices, at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre. The symposium was organised by Dr Bryan Singer, Sussex University, and included in it was the presentation of findings from his project on pharmacological treatment of gambling disorder (Simon was a Co-I on that project, which was funded by AFSG).
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Simon was interviewed by Dr Jon Sutton, Editor of The Psychologist. It was quite a rambling chat, from his introduction to behaviourism to his current work in gambling. Read it here. You’ll laugh. You’ll cringe.
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Welcome back to Dr Matthew Jones who is working on the Greo-funded gambling-related suicide project in collaboration with SAIL Databank and Dr Dan Leightley, King’s College London. Pippa Boering MSc, currently pursuing Graduate Entry Medicine at Oxford, joined the team in January as Research Assistant.
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Congratulations to team members Dr Chris Seel BCBA, Dr Matthew Jones and Dr Chloe Rayner who were recently awarded their PhDs following viva voce examination!
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More calls for NHS gambling clinics in Wales here.
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Press release on our calls for NHS Gambling Harms services for Wales: Read it here.
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Someone talking about something:
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Check out our Look Back to Move Forward project site here, funded by the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust.
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Colleagues presenting their work at CAGR 2023, King’s College London.
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Recruiting two Research Officers for the new Centre for Military Gambling Research (MilGAM): here.
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Two, fully funded PhD studentships in the new Centre for Military Gambling Research (MilGAM): https://www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate/scholarships/research/medical-health-care-studies-gc-phd-milgam-2023-rs385.php
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Welcome to Dr Glen Dighton who joins us from KCMHR, King’s College London as GREAT Research Facilitation Officer.
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News of £1m in funding awarded for projects involving Armed Forces veterans and harmful gambling here.
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Congratulations to Dr Cat Hitch who (re)joins us as ACTIVATE Research Officer in April 2023.
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News of the OVA-funded ACTIVATE study from Cobseo,the foreign affairs/New Zealand and more closer to home, Swansea Bay News.
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New funding! The aim of the ACTIVATE study is to evaluate the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of a smartphone app based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to reduce harmful gambling and PTSD symptoms in veterans with co-existing diagnoses of PTSD and gambling disorder. The study, worth £300,000, is funded by the Office for Veterans’ Affairs (Cabinet Office) Veterans’ Health Innovation Fund and was one of 22 successful awards totalling £5m recently announced by Rt Hon Jonny Mercer MP, Minster for Veterans’ Affairs. ACTIVATE is a collaboration between Swansea University, Combat Stress, and King’s Centre for Military Health Research, King’s College London.
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The GREAT Network Wales contributed to this important gambling health needs assessment for Wales just published by Public Health Wales.
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Simon is Co-PI on a recently awarded, £1million project from the Gambling Commission’s Social Responsibility Funds investigating Armed Forces veterans’ gambling harm pathways. The project is a collaboration with Anonymind, Anglia Ruskin University and Norfolk & Suffolk NHS.
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Congratulations to Dr Scott Houghton who has been awarded funding by the Academic Forum for the Study of Gambling (AFSG) to continue his work analysing gambling operators’ social media usgae during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read about the project here. Congratulations are also due to Dr Cat Hitch who has been awarded a travel grant from the AFSG (as was Scott!).
Simon is Co-I on another AFSG funded project with Dr Bryan Singer at University of Sussex on Modelling individual variation in response to pharmacological intervention for problematic gambling. Read about the project here.
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Press release for our online counterconditioning study of COVID-19 fear and avoidance here.
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Welcome to Matthew Jones, who has joined the SAGE Study (Scoping the Accessibility of Safer Gambling Information in the United Kingdom Armed Forces) as Research Officer. Matthew can be contacted on m.b.jones@swansea.ac.uk
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Best wishes and thanks to Jack McGarrigle and Cat Hitch who have completed their roles on the CONGAM and RWIF projects, respectively. Jack is off backpacking to Canada where he will be working on the slopes at Whistler this winter. Thanks for everything, Jack! Cat has she’s landed a fixed-term teaching post with our Med Ed colleagues. Thank you, Cat!
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Announcement of our Greo-funded Armed Forces evaluation study (‘SAGE’) selected for funding through the Safer Gambling Information Project here.
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It’s the end of an era: Susannah Field’s last day as the GREAT Network Wales Research Coordinator. As her title suggests, she has indeed been great! So many bids were coordinated and submitted (and even some awarded) thanks to her. She helped cultivate and grow the Network, new learned society organisations like the Academic Forum for the Study of Gambling, and coordinated hugely successful international conferences like the 2nd Current Advances in Gambling Research (CAGR) conference in Cardiff in 2022. Thank you for your hard work and enthusiasm, Susannah, and best of luck with the next stage of your career!
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JOB OPENING: SAGE Research Officer (deadline: Sep 28 2022) here.
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Written Cabinet Statement from Welsh Government on Task and Finish Group on Gambling Related Harm (on which Simon sat as an invited, founding member) here.
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New project alert: Funded by The British Academy/Leverhulme Trust, the Gambling on Google project (GAMGOG) is seeking a Research Assistant to investigate online trends during the COVID-19 pandemic bit.ly/3Pe9oy3 Interested in big data & gambling? Apply!
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Welcome Catherine (Cat) Hitch who has joined the RWIF project as Research Officer. Cat will be conducting a systematic review and consensus-building with stakeholders on a new intervention for military veterans with co-occurring PTSD and gambling disorder. Cat has recently completed her PhD at Queen’s University Belfast.
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We bid au revoir to Lucy who has taken up a Lectureship at University of Southampton. Lucy’s old post on the CONGAM project is now advertised and available for 6 months in the first instance. See the job advert here.
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Simon and colleagues have secured funding from The British Academy/Leverhulme Trust for a project entitled ‘Gambling on Google and Twitter: A Big Data Approach to Understanding the Public Health Impact of COVID-19′. Watch out for a job posting coming soon!
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Simon and the team have been awarded funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales – Research Wales Innovation Fund for a project entitled, ‘Treatment of Gambling Disorder and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in UK Military Veterans: A Scoping and Feasibility Study’. More details coming soon!
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Swansea University feature on our gambling-related harm research here.
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Gambling and wellbeing in the RAF research report has been launched and published here. You can watch the launch event here. Swansea University press release may be read here.
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The CONGAM Study is seeking a Research Assistant. Further details here.
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Swansea University press release on our article in BMJ Military Health on the costs of gambling in a sample of UK veterans is here
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Findings from the Forces in Mind Trust funded UK Veterans’ Health and Gambling Study have been published. You can access the full report and press release here.
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NOW HIRING: GREAT Tutor in Behavioural Psychology. See the job advert here.
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Congratulations to Dr Glen Dighton, VEGAS Research Assistant, who has secured the post of Research Associate at King’s College London. Best of luck, Glen, with your new post and thanks for your hard work on the VEGAS project! Katie Wood MSc has also completed her role on the VEGAS project and returned to her PhD studies at the University of Plymouth. Thanks for all your hard work, Katie!
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Check out the Gambling Research, Education and Treatment (GREAT) Network Wales website here.
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Simon was interviewed for a piece by ITV Wales This Week on the impact of COVID-19 on gambling. Watch him shivering in his garden here.
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Welcome to Dr Seb Whiteford, who has joined the group as ICRG Research Assistant! Seb completed his PhD at Swansea before undertaking his postdoc in the Dept of Psychiatry at Cambridge University. Seb will be working on the ICRG-funded project investigating computational modelling of live-odds betting, and also helping out with analysis of the VEGAS dataset.
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Worth a listen: The All Bets Are Off Podcast on Gambling Harm Among The Armed Forces & Veterans Community.
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Check out the Contingency Management for Gambling (CONGAM) project website here.
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Dr Gemma Cameron has (re)joined the lab as Ser Cymru Research Assistant, working on an online study of threat learning during COVID-19. Gemma completed her PhD in the Lab. Read the press release for the launch of our Ser Cymru research project here
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BBC Wales News coverage here of our letter in The Lancet calling for NHS gambling clinics in Wales. Swansea University press story here.
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Recruiting a Research Assistant for a project funded by the ICRG on identiying and modelling the reinforcement schedules in live-odds sports betting. Interested? The job advert is here.
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Recruiting a Research Assistant: The VEGAS project is seeing a p/t Researcher for the final 6 months of data collection and analysis. Interested? See here.
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Recruiting a Research Coordinator: The Gambling Research, Evaluation and Treatment (GREAT) Network Wales is seeking a part-time Reserach Coordinator to assist with bid developent and submission. Deadline is 27-08.20. Job advert here.
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Swansea academics (Professor Simon Dymond and lab alumnus, Dr Alice Hoon) join call for statutory levy on gambling firms: Academics warn current system gives industry too much influence on how money is spent. Read the press release to the BMJ open letter.
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The Royal Air Force (RAF) Benevolent Fund has awarded SD funding to undertake a project to investigate the nature and extent of gambling related harm among the servving RAF community. A Research Assistant is currently being recruited.
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The Welsh Government through Health and Care Research Wales has awarded SD funding for the Gambling Research Evaluation and Treatment Wales Network. Across the next three years, Simon will strive to secure further funding in relation to gambling research in Wales and undertake associated networking and user engagement activities to support this work. Read the press release here.
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POSTDOC OPENING! The CONGAM project (A Scoping and Feasibility Study of adding Contingency Management to Psychosocial Interventions for Disordered Gambling), is seeking a Research Officer to undertake small group and trial-based research with recovering gamblers and treatment service providers. Interested? Details here.
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Read a blog written by Sally McManus for the Money and Mental Health Institute about our in-depth research on the link between problem gambling, self-harm, suicide, and mental health here.
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The presentation Simon gave on Gambling-related Suicide at the Together for Mental Health Conference 2019 in Cardiff, October 2019 can be viewed here
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The findings from our gambling-related suicide project, with recommendations for future research, have been published. Funded by GambleAware, and conducted in conjunction with Dr Heather Wardle, Sally McManus, and Professor Ann John, the Gambling Commission news item can read here, as can a write up in The Guardian here.
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Simon was a member of the conference committee behind the Current Advances in Gambling Research Conference, which was held in UEL, July 12th 2019. Funded by the Society for the Study of Addiction, the event aims to bring together inter-disciplinary academic experts to discuss the latest data driven developments in research on gambling in a supportive and critically reflective environment. The Conference Committee consisted of Dr Steve Sharman (UEL), Dr Amanda Roberts (University of Lincoln) Prof. Simon Dymond (Swansea University) and Prof. John Turner (UEL). Check out the conference site here.
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The UK Armed Forces Veterans’ Health and Gambling Study was mentioned during a debate in the House of Lords, June 2019. In response to a question from the Bishop of St. Albans, Earl Howe, the Minister of State, Ministry of Defence, and Deputy Leader of the House of Lords, stated that the Study, funded by Forces in Mind Trust, was the first of it’s kind to assess gambling participation and attitudes in ex-service personnel. You can read the exchange here.
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The UK Armed Forces Veterans’ Health and Gambling Study was featured in the Chief Medical Officer’s Annual Report 2018_2019. You can read the CMO for Wales Annual Report here (the study is featured on p.58) and find out more about the study here.
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In April 2019, Simon travelled east of Abertawe for the first meeting of GambleAware Welsh Advisory Panel in ‘the Diff and then, later, even further east, he attended the launch of the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms in Westminster, London. He was glad to get back West where the (non-electrified) traintrack runs out.
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Simon gave a presentation at the Anxiety and Depression Association of American annual convention in Chicago, March 2019. Simon was invited to present by Shmuel Lissek and Christopher Hunt in a symposium they organised entitled, “Toward understanding avoidance in clinical anxiety: The value of experimental choice paradigms” . Simon got to hang out with Shmuel (below, centre) and Namik Kirlic (below, left), as well as catch the mighty Chicago Fire MLS team in action!
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March 2019: Simon and Tori attended the 2019 Veterans’ Mental Health Conference at King’s College, London. Tori displayed a poster describing the UK Armed Forces Veterans Health and Gambling study and received a lot of interest (but sadly no poster prize)! Simon even managed to remember to bring the poster back on the train.
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Rhiannon Phillips MSc has joined the UK Armed Forces Veterans Health and Gambling project as Research Assistant. Rhiannon has experience conducting survey-based fieldwork with vulnerable populations, and is currently undertaking training as an Assistant Psychologist. Welcome, Rhiannon!
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Simon contributed to a report published by Public Health Wales on identifying area-based vulnerabilities to gambling-related harm in Wales. Read more here.
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Simon gave a presentation entitled “Fear and avoidance of the unknown: Derived stimulus relations and the empirical study of emotion” at the annual conference of the Icelandic Association for Behavior Analysis, in Reykjavik, Iceland, November 1-2 2018. He also got to hang out with Pat Friman (Boys Town) and Greg Hanley (Western New England University)!
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We’re hiring! One position is available on the UK Armed Forces Veterans’ Health and Gambling Study, for one year. There is the possibility of the role being full-time through supporting other, related research projects. Interested? Apply here.
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Tori Miles MSc has joined the Armed Forces Veterans and Gambling project as lead researcher. Tori brings with her a history of supporting veterans through her role as therapist with Help for Heroes and as a research trial manager at Cardiff University. Welcome, Tori!
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We are hiring! Two Research Assistants are sought for the Forces in Mind Trust funded project on veterans’ gambling and related healthcare costs. One post is for 2.5yrs, the other for 1.5 yrs, and both commence in September 2018. See the job advert here or here
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We (Lars Marstaller, Daniel Zuj, Weike Xia, and Simon) hosted and organised the 10th European Meeting on Human Fear Conditioning (EMHFC) at Hensol Castle and the Vale Resort, Vale of Glamorgan, April 16-18 2018. The anniversary meeting was a huge success, and we were honoured to organise it. You can see photos of the event here.
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Our FiMT-funded research on gambling problems in UK armed forces veterans was mentioned by collaborator, Matt Fossey of Anglia Ruskin University’s Veterans and Families Institute, during evidence given to the House of Commons Defence Committee on Armed Forces and Veterans Mental Health. See 12.14 minutes in here.
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Simon was back in his old stomping ground, the School of Applied Psychology at University College Cork, for an invited seminar talk. Shocked to realise it was almost 22 years ago that he graduated with his PhD from UCC, Simon spent most of his talk vainly trying to perfect his Cork accent, like. Thanks to Conor and the App Psych team for the invite, and cheers to Ver and Mar for representing! Tweet here.
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NEW! Fully-funded PhD Studentship! Want to work on a Swansea University Research Excellence Scholarship (SURES), supervised by Dr Alice Hoon and myself, investigating gaming machines and their role in problem gambling? If so, apply here. Deadline is January 22nd 2018.
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Catch up on Simon’s appearance, explaining the near-miss effect, on ITV Wales This Week here.
Simon and Glen Dighton, PhD student working on the impact on the family of veterans’ gambling, feature in tonight’s ITV Wales This Week programme. Be sure to tune in!
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Simon gave an invited presentation at Third Annual Conference of the Russian Association for Behaviour Analysis, in Moscow, Russia, on September 30th 2017. His talk was entitled “Schedules, derived relations, and the behaviour analysis of gambling”.
Here he is with his old friend and colleague, Dr Neil Martin BCBA.
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Simon attended the invited stakeholder reception, “Welsh consumers at the heart of gambling regulation’, jointly hosted by the Gambling Commission and the Directors of Public Protection Wales and held in the Senedd, Cardiff Bay.
Gambling behaviour is increasingly a subject of public health and policy interest, both for the Welsh Assembly and for people across Wales. The Gambling Commission and the Directors of Public Protection Wales focused on the how to keep gambling fair, safe and crime free. Addressing problem gambling – and the wider effects it has on society in Wales and across Britain – is one of the GC’s key priorities.
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At the launch of the Veterans and Gambling FiMT-funded project, 3rd Excessive Gambling Wales 2017 conference with Carolyn Harris MP, Elystan Roberts (Research Assistant on the project), Matt Fossey of Veterans and Families Institute, Anglia Ruskin University (Co-Investigator on the project), and Glen Dighton (PhD student). Download the report here.
More photos from the day can be found here. Read the SU press release here and a BBC Wales article about the conference here.
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Videos from the Public Health Network Cymru ‘Addictive Behaviour and Behaviour Change‘ seminar, held at Bangor University on May 4th 2017, at which Simon presented, are available to view here.
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The launch of the findings of the FiMT-funded Veterans and Gambling project will happen at the 3rd Welsh National Conference on Excessive Gambling, on June 21st. Check out the conference programme here and register (for free) here.
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We’re hosting the 10th European Meeting on Human Fear Conditioning in April 2018! More details here.
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Welcome to Elystan Roberts, who has joined the lab as a Research Assistant on the Forces in Mind Trust funded project investigating gambling in UK armed forces veterans. Elystan studied at Oxford University and worked as researcher in Cardiff University and King’s College London. Welcome, Elystan!
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New, Research Assistant post available, working on the Forces in Mind Trust funded Veterans and Gambling Study. Jobs.ac.uk link here. Deadline: 22/11/16
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New grant announced: Delighted to have been awarded a grant from the Forces in Mind Trust for the very first evaluation of gambling-related problems among UK veterans which will also compare the findings against non-veterans from the general population. Read the FiMT announcement and the Swansea University press release.
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Glen Dighton MSc. has joined the lab. Glen will be conducting his PhD research, which is funded by the Responsible Gambling Trust, on “Gambling on Civvy Street: Assessing the Impact of Gambling-related Problems on UK Armed Forces Veterans and Their Families”. Welcome, Glen!
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Kathrin Weidacker has joined the lab as a research assistant. For the next year, Kathrin will be working on the NCRG-funded project investigating GABA spectroscopy of cognitive control in disordered gambling. Welcome, Kathrin!
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Gemma and Weike presented their research at the College of Health and Human Sciences Annual PGR Conference in September 2016. For photos of them presenting, see here and here.
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Simon was one of the invited speakers at the 2nd Wales Excessive Gambling Conference at the Pierhead Building, adjacent to the Senedd in Cardiff Bay on June 22nd 2016. Simon presented his and his colleagues’ fMRI and MEG work on ‘almost winning’ and was part of an expert panel discussion. He also provided his support for the Wales launch of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals, chaired by Swansea East MP, Carolyn Harris.
Here’s a SU press release and here’s a link to the conference site. Here’s a link to coverage of the event from ITV Wales.
Follow the Beat The Odds support group here.
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Research Assistant post just advertised: click here. Deadline: July 8th.
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Simon, Gemma and Weike recently attended the 8th European Meeting on Human Fear Conditioning held at Amersfoort, The Netherlands, from April 18-20 2016. Gemma (below right) presented her work on category typicality effects in avoidance generalization, conducted in collaboration with Joey Dunsmoor of NYU, and Weike (below left) gave a poster describing her data on effects of avoidance reliability on resistance to extinction, conducted in collaboration with Bram Vervliet of KU Leuven. Simon chaired a symposium on fear generalization. Roll on Hamburg in 2017!
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GRANT SUCCESS! Simon and Frederic Boy have been awarded a seed grant from the US-based National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) for a one-year project entitled, “Neurochemistry of cognitive control in gambling vulnerability“. A research position will be advertised soon.
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Congratulations to Weike, who graduated with her Masters in Neuroscience & Cognition from Utrecht University in December 2015.
Here’s a photo of Weike (centre) with her advisor, Associate Professor Joke Baas (right) and colleagues.
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Simon and Mike Schlund’s neuroimaging research on approach-avoidance conflict and the anterior cingulate was presented at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago. The poster (K8 503.9) was very well received, leaving Mike very busy!
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New Lab Member: This week, the Lab welcomed Weike Xia MSc, who has commenced her university-funded PhD on safety behaviours and overgeneralisation. Weike recently completed her Masters in Neuroscience & Cognition at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. Welcome, Weike!
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New Publications: Congratulations to PhD students Katie Still and Gemma Cameron on having their work recently accepted for publication!
Katie’s study on facilitating untrained requesting skills in children with autism was published in Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders as part of a forthcoming special issue on derived relational responding. Gemma’s work on generalised avoidance and pathways to fear and avoidance was published in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience (as part of an invited research topic on avoidance learning and psychopathology) and in Journal of Behavior Therapy & Experimental Psychiatry, respectively.
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Miriam Lommen and Simon are presenting their funded research project (A pilot study of brief therapy for reducing overgeneralization of fear through solution-focused discrimination training) at the European Brief Therapy Association (EBTA) Conference in Vienna, September 12th 2015.
Simon is presenting with colleagues from KU Leuven and University of Utrecht in a symposium entitled, “The Avoidance Paradox: When Protective Actions Foster Fears In Humans,” at the 27th APS Annual Convention, May 21-24, 2015 at the New York Marriott Marquis in New York, NY, USA. Prof. Elizabeth Phelps of New York University is the discussant.
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Simon is presenting in a symposium on “Rule-based generalisation: from animal research to experimental psychopathology” at the International Convention of Psychological Science, Amsterdam, March 14th. Further details here.
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January 2015
Great news! Miriam Lommen (University of Oxford) and Simon have been awarded a grant from the European Brief Therapy Association for a project entitled, A pilot study of brief therapy for reducing overgeneralization of fear through solution-focused discrimination training. They have been awarded €3500 to conduct and disseminate the research. Well done!
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Fully funded PhD studentship opportunity available from October 2015!
A funded studentship (tuition fees, plus annual stipend) is available on the topic of ‘Safety behaviours and overgeneralisation’.
The aims of this studentship are to develop and validate a lab-based tool, implemented in virtual reality, of the overgeneralization of safety behaviours, to test group differences in safety behaviour generalization in those with and without an anxiety disorder, and assess the degree to which maladaptive safety behaviour can be reduced via a brain stimulation intervention.
We will record physiological arousal (skin conductance responses, SCRs), electromyography (EMG) of expressive facial muscles (fear-potentiated startle, FPS), cognitive fear expectancy ratings and avoidance behaviour.
This studentship provides funding for three years, full time study only. A stipend of £13,836 is paid and all course fees are included. The successful candidate will be expected to contribute to undergraduate tutorials, practical demonstrating and assessment.
Supervisory Team: Dr. Simon Dymond (Psychology); Professor Keith Lloyd (Medicine); Dr. Frederic Boy (Psychology)
Click here for more details – deadline: Feb 28th 2015
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