A Guide to Types of Therapy for Gambling Addiction

Talkspace articles are written by experienced mental health-wellness contributors; they are grounded in scientific research and evidence-based practices. Articles are extensively reviewed by our team of clinical experts (therapists and psychiatrists of various specialties) to ensure content is accurate and on par with current industry standards. When gambling takes over your life, it can feel like you’re in a cycle you can’t escape. The rush of placing a bet, the hope of a win, the crash that follows a loss, and the urge to chase it again.

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The purpose of these meetings is to review participant progress and clinical concerns (e.g. AEs), ensure consistency in the CBT-treatment and adherence to the protocol, and address problems related to the implementation of the treatment.
For example, participant 3 described a monthly pattern where he gambled using all his salary as soon as the amount was transferred to his bank account.
Fourth, participants in both treatments rated treatment credibility and therapist alliance equally high.
Each of these strategies helps individuals rebuild a balanced life, reducing the need to turn to gambling for emotional relief or stimulation.

The interim analyses also enable decisions about implementation in regular care as fast as possible, as treatment options for this group of patients are lacking. These decisions will be made by the trial steering committee in collaboration with the assigned statistician. Several steps have been taken to increase the participant´s ability to follow the protocol. At every session, the participants will also be reminded of the importance of doing the home assignments and filling out the gaming diary. Besides being an important part of the treatment, the gaming diary is also a method for monitoring adherence to the protocol. Research personnel will monitor whether the questionnaires are answered as planned and provide reminders to the therapists or participants.

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Motivational interviewing is a client-centered approach that enhances motivation to change by exploring and resolving ambivalence. This technique has proven highly effective in engaging individuals with gambling addiction, significantly reducing both the frequency of gambling and the amount of money spent. Family-based interventions have shown particular promise for adolescents with internet addiction. A study conducted in Delhi showed that including parents in treatment improved outcomes by approximately 40% compared to individual treatment alone. A typical CBT program for internet or gambling addiction might include weekly sessions, with homework assignments between sessions to practice new skills in real-world settings.

Money bet/week on the G-TLFB was originally measured in Swedish (SEK) but was recalculated to US dollars for ease of understanding. Internal consistency of the outcome measures was calculated on the FAS population. In both interventions, participants once a week also received telephone support from their therapist for a maximum of 15 min. When a new module was started, they received a short text message reminding them of the new module.

Family therapy addresses the systemic factors contributing to addiction, while brief interventions offer accessible support for early-stage problems. Overall, RoB 2 study ratings indicated a high risk of bias, though with less risk of bias in more recently published studies and studies of remote intervention (Supplementary Material 1 Table S7 and Fig. S1). The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview is a structured screening interview for common psychiatric disorders. It includes questions assessing a wide range of psychiatric disorders including mood and anxiety disorders, suicide risk, and use of psychoactive substances. The Swedish version of this structured clinical interview will be used to assess psychiatric comorbidity in the assessment of exclusion criteria 59. It has shown excellent inter-rater reliability (all kappa values over 0.75) and good test–retest reliability (61% of kappa values over 0.75) 27.

Several psychological interventions using different therapeutic approaches, formats, and modes of delivery are available. Traditionally, face-to-face therapy has been offered in both individual and group formats. This trend of rethinking and digitalizing modes of delivery within psychological intervention for GD occurs along with rapid developments and digitalization of gambling products within and outside governmental regulatory frameworks. Increasingly, gambling resembling features are migrating into non-gambling platforms https://gameaviatorofficial.com/ (e.g., loot boxes in online gaming), and virtual properties and cryptocurrencies are highly utilized as stakes for gambling.