Gambling Problem
Conditions
Brief summary
Online interventions for gambling problems hold a strong potential to help people with gambling concerns. However, there are no trials, to-date, that have been able to demonstrate the effectiveness of such an intervention. The current trial will compare participants provided access to an online gambling intervention to those assigned by chance to a no intervention condition in order to test the efficacy of one such Internet intervention for gambling. Participants will be recruited through Amazon's MTurk crowdsourcing platform. Potential participants identified as problem gamblers who are interested in quitting or reducing their gambling in the next 6 months, or often think about it, based on an initial survey will be invited to complete additional surveys at 6 weeks and 6 months. Those who then agree to be followed up will be randomized to access an online intervention for gambling or a no-intervention website. These participants will then be contacted again at 6 weeks and 6 months to ask about their gambling, and their impressions of the online intervention. The primary hypothesis to be tested is that participants receiving access to the online gambling intervention will report a greater reduction in number of days gambling and in NODS scores at 6-month follow-up than participants in the no intervention control condition.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALOnline Gambling Internet Intervention
CAMH's online gambling intervention which includes self-help materials as well as a personalized feedback component.
Sponsors
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
OTHER
Masking
SINGLE (Subject)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* 18 years of age or over * A score of 5 or over on the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) * Thinking about cutting down or quitting their gambling (in next 6 months, or state that they are thinking about it most or almost all of the time) * Willingness to complete a 6-week and 6-month follow-up survey
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in the variable, National Opinion Research Center DSM Screen for Gambling Problems (NODS) score | Past 6 months | Screening tool for gambling problems according to DSM-IV criteria |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in the variable, number of days gambling in the past month | 6 weeks and 6 months | Total days gambled in the past 30 days |
| Change in the variable, Gambling Symptom Assessment Scale (GSAS) score | 6 weeks and 6 months | Gambling symptom severity in the past week |
Countries
Canada
Outcome results
None listed