Efficacy of a Self-Help Treatment for At-Risk and Pathological Gamblers.

Available evidence suggests that self-help treatments may reduce problem gambling severity but inconsistencies of results across clinical trials leave the extent of their benefits unclear. Moreover, no self-help treatment has yet been validated within a French Canadian setting. The current study therefore assesses the efficacy of a French language self-help treatment including three motivational telephone interviews spread over an 11-week period and a cognitive-behavioral self-help workbook. At-risk and pathological gamblers were randomly assigned to the treatment group (n = 31) or the waiting list (n = 31). Relative to the waiting list, the treatment group showed a statistically significant reduction in the number of DSM-5 gambling disorder criteria met, gambling habits, and gambling consequences at Week 11. Perceived self-efficacy and life satisfaction also significantly improved after 11 weeks for the treatment group, but not for the waiting list group. At Week 11, 13% of participants had dropped out of the study. All significant changes reported for the treatment group were maintained throughout 1, 6 and 12-month follow-ups. Results support the efficacy of the self-help treatment to reduce problem gambling severity, gambling behaviour and to improve overall functioning among a sample of French Canadian problem gamblers over short, medium and long term. Findings from this study lend support to the appropriateness of self-help treatments for problem gamblers and help clarify inconsistencies found in the literature. The low dropout rate is discussed with respect to the advantages of the self-help format. Clinical and methodological implications of the results are put forth.

Gambling exposure in virtual reality and modification of urge to gamble.

The urge to gamble is a psychological, physiological, and emotional state involved in the maintenance of pathological gambling. The ability of repeated exposure to a virtual gambling environment to modify the urge to gamble and perceived self-efficacy (PSE) is investigated. Ten video lottery players move throughout a virtual bar with five video lottery terminals five times. The urge to gamble and PSE do not significantly vary during exposure to the gambling environment. However, the desire to gamble significantly increases when passing from the practice environment to the gambling environment. These findings suggest that virtual reality is viable for use in exposure, but that a sole 20-minute session does not set the extinction process into motion. Future studies should be conducted on virtual exposure over the course of several sessions, with the addition of a cognitive restructuring intervention.