Therapist-delivered and self-help interventions for gambling problems: A review of contents

Simone Rodda; Stephanie S Merkouris; Charles Abraham; David C Hodgins; Sean Cowlishaw; Nicki A Dowling

doi:10.1556/2006.7.2018.44

Therapist-delivered and self-help interventions for gambling problems: A review of contents

J Behav Addict. 2018 Jun 1;7(2):211-226. doi: 10.1556/2006.7.2018.44. Epub 2018 Jun 13.

Authors

Simone Rodda^{1

2}, Stephanie S Merkouris², Charles Abraham³, David C Hodgins⁴, Sean Cowlishaw^{5

6}, Nicki A Dowling^{2

7}

Affiliations

¹ 1 School of Population Health, University of Auckland , Auckland, New Zealand.
² 2 School of Psychology, Deakin University , Geelong, VIC, Australia.
³ 3 Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne , Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
⁴ 4 Department of Psychology, University of Calgary , Calgary, Canada.
⁵ 5 Phoenix Australia Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne , Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
⁶ 6 Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol , Bristol, UK.
⁷ 7 Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne , Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

Abstract

Background and aims To date, no systematic approach to identifying the content and characteristics of psychological interventions used to reduce gambling or problem gambling has been developed. This study aimed to develop a reliable classification system capable of identifying intervention characteristics that could, potentially, account for greater or lesser effectiveness. Methods Intervention descriptions were content analyzed to identify common and differentiating characteristics. A coder manual was developed and applied by three independent coders to identify the presence or absence of defined characteristics in 46 psychological and self-help gambling interventions. Results The final classification taxonomy, entitled Gambling Intervention System of CharacTerization (GIST), included 35 categories of intervention characteristics. These were assigned to four groups: (a) types of change techniques (18 categories; e.g., cognitive restructuring and relapse prevention), (b) participant and study characteristics (6 categories; e.g., recruitment strategy and remuneration policy), and (c) characteristics of the delivery and conduct of interventions (11 categories; e.g., modality of delivery and therapist involvement), and (d) evaluation characteristics (e.g., type of control group). Interrater reliability of identification of defined characteristics was high (κ = 0.80-1.00). Discussion This research provides a tool that allows systematic identification of intervention characteristics, thereby enabling consideration, not only of whether interventions are effective or not, but also of which domain-relevant characteristics account for greater or lesser effectiveness. The taxonomy also facilitates standardized description of intervention content in a field in which many diverse interventions have been evaluated. Conclusion Application of this coding tool has the potential to accelerate the development of more efficient and effective therapist-delivered and self-directed interventions to reduce gambling problems.

Keywords: change techniques; personalized feedback; reporting guidelines; self-help; taxonomy; treatment.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Gambling / classification
Gambling / therapy*
Humans
Psychotherapy / classification*
Self-Management*

Grants and funding

Funding sources: This research was funded by Gambling Research Ontario Exchange. CA’s time was partially funded by the UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care of the South West Peninsula (PenCLAHRC). The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the funding agencies.