Efficacy of an Internet-based Psychological Intervention for Problem Gambling and Gambling Disorder

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The aim of this study is to assess the efficacy of an online CBT-based intervention combined with an Ecological Momentary Intervention (EMI) and different complementary tools for the treatment of problem gambling and gambling disorder. The main hypothesis is that the Internet-based psychological intervention group will obtain better results than the waiting list control group.

Detailed Description
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Gambling Disorder is a prevalent non-substance use disorder, which contrasts with the low number of people requesting treatment. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) could help to enhance the dissemination of evidence-based treatments and considerably reduce the costs. The current study seeks to assess the efficacy of an online psychological intervention for people suffering from gambling problems in Spain. The proposed study will be a two-arm, parallel-group, randomized controlled trial. A total of 134 participants (problem and pathological gamblers) will be randomly allocated to a waiting list control group (N=67) or an intervention group (N=67). The intervention program includes 8 modules, and it is based on motivational interviewing, cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), and extensions and innovations of CBT. It includes several complementary tools that are present throughout the entire intervention. Therapeutic support will be provided once a week through a phone call with a maximum length of 10 minutes. The primary outcome measure will be gambling severity and gambling-related cognitions, and secondary outcome measures will be readiness to change, and gambling self-efficacy. Other variables that will be considered are depression and anxiety symptoms, positive and negative affect, difficulties in emotion regulation strategies, impulsivity, and quality of life. Individuals will be assessed at baseline, post-treatment, and 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups. During the treatment, participants will also respond to a daily Ecological Momentary Intervention (EMI) in order to evaluate urges to gamble, self-efficacy to cope with gambling urges, gambling urge frequency, and whether gambling behaviour occurs. The EMI includes immediate automatic feedback depending on the participant's responses. Treatment acceptance and satisfaction will also be assessed. The data will be analysed both per protocol and by Intention-to-treat. As far as we know, this is the first randomized controlled trial of an online psychological intervention for gambling disorder in Spain. It will expand our knowledge about treatments delivered via the Internet and contribute to improving treatment dissemination, reaching people suffering from this problem who otherwise would not receive help.

Official Title
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Efficacy of an Internet-based Psychological Intervention for Problem Gambling and Gambling Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Conditions
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Pathological Gambling

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Gambling Internet-based Protocol


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Be 18 years or older. Willingness to participate in the study and sign informed consent. To have and handle the computer, Internet and an email address. Ability to understand, read and write Spanish. Based on the cut-off points established by the Norc diagnostic screen for gambling disorders (NODS; adapted by Becoña, 2004): be a problem gambler (3-4 items) or a pathological gambler (5 or more items). Willingness to provide the name of a co-therapist to validate the information provided, as well as to be able to locate the patient in follow-ups. Willing to provide follow-up data on gambling. Exclusion Criteria: Any serious mental disorder (Bipolar and Related Disorders and Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders), medical illness, and moderate or severe alcohol and/or substance use disorder, that prevents the program from being carried out. If their gambling behaviour occurs in the context of a Maniac Episode or because of the intake of dopaminergic medication (e.g. Parkinson's disease). The presence of high suicidal risk. Receiving another psychological treatment while the study is still ongoing. Receiving pharmacological treatment is not an exclusion criterion during the study period, but participants having an increase and/or change in the medication 2 months prior to enrollment will not be considered for the trial. Also, the increase and/or change in the medication during the study period in the experimental group will imply the participant's exclusion from subsequent analyses (a decrease in pharmacological treatment is accepted).

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Treatment
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Gambling Internet-based Protocol<br>Intervention group that carries out the Gambling Internet-based Protocol based on Cognitive and Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and receives support by the therapist (a weekly 10-minute phone call without clinical content). In addition, they will receive one notification per day to respond to the EMI questions at 8 PM. The EMI includes immediate automatic feedback depending on the participant's responses. | Behavioral: Gambling Internet-based Protocol<br>* Gambling Internet-based protocol is a multimedia interactive and self-help program for problem and pathological gamblers, which will allow individuals to learn and practice adaptive ways to cope with this problem. The main therapeutic modules included in this program are: 1) Motivational for change; 2) Psychoeducation; 3) Stimulus control (e.g. self-prohibition and blocking of usual gambling websites with therapist confirmation) and responsible return of debts; 4) Cognitive restructuring; 5) Emotion regulation; 6) Planning of significant activities; 7) Coping skills and exposure with response prevention; 8) Relapse prevention.<br>|
| No Intervention: Waiting List Control Group<br>Participants in a 12-week waiting list control condition. They will be offered the possibility of receiving the online treatment protocol after the waiting list period. | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Change in the Gambling Symptom Assessment Scale (G-SAS; Kim, Grant, Potenza, Blanco & Hollander, 2009) at Pre-intervention, Post-module, Post-intervention, 3-, 6-, and 12 months Follow-up. | The G-SAS is a 12-item self-report instrument that assesses gambling symptom severity. All items are referred to as an average symptom based on the past 7 days.The statements correspond with gambling urges;average frequency, duration,and control of thoughts associated with gambling;time spent on gambling or gambling-related behaviour;anticipatory excitement caused by an imminent gambling act; pleasure associated with winning;emotional distress;and personal trouble.All items are rated on a 4-point scale (total score: 0-48).The higher score the higher gambling symptoms severity (mild=8-20;moderate=21-30;severe=31-40;extreme=41-48).It shows high internal consistency (α=0.87) and good convergent validity with other measures associated with gambling symptom severity in a sample of pathological gamblers.Because this instrument has not a Spanish version, standardized procedures were followed to adapt G-SAS to the Spanish language.Cronbach's alpha will be calculated with the data at hand. | Up to 12 months | 
| Change in the Gambling-Related Cognitions Scale (GRCS-S; Raylu & Oei, 2004; Spanish validation Del Prete, Steward, Navas, Fernández-Aranda, Jiménez-Murcia, Oei & Perales, 2016) at Pre-intervention, Post-intervention, 3-, 6-, and 12 months Follow-up. | The GRCS-S is a self-report instrument aimed to assess five domains of gambling-related cognitions (interpretative bias, IB; the illusion of control, IC; predictive control, PC; gambling expectancies, GE; and perceived inability to stop gambling, ISG). It comprises 23 items which are worded on a 7-point Likert type scale (1= I completely disagree; 7=I completely agree). The total score consists of adding the values of the whole items. The score for each subscale is obtained adding the values for the items' set that represent each subscale. The higher the total score the higher the number of gambling-related cognitions presented. GRCS-S shows adequate psychometric properties in a sample composed by treatment-seeking gamblers and non-treatment-seeking gamblers: the concurrent and criterion-related validity are verified, the full scale reliability is 0.95, and for each subscale reliability ranges from 0.68 to 0.91 (GE= 0.77; IC=0.68; PC=0.84; ISG=0.91; IB= 0.89). | Up to 12 months | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Change in the Gambling Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (GSEQ; May, Whelan, Steenbergh & Meyers, 2003; Winfree, Ginley, Whelan, & Meyers, 2014) at Pre-intervention, Post-module, Post-intervention, 3-, 6-, and 12 months Follow-up. | The GSEQ is a self-report instrument that assesses perceived self-efficacy to control gambling in high-risk situations through 16 six-point Likert scale items. Participants are asked to indicate how confident they feel in a scale that ranges from 0% (Not at all confident) to 100% (Very confident) in increments of 20%. Specifically, it includes intrapersonal (e.g. unpleasant emotions, physical discomfort, pleasant emotions, testing personal control, and urges and temptations) and interpersonal factors (conflict with others, social pressure and pleasant times with others) based on Marlatt's (1985) model of relapse situations for addictive behaviors. The overall score is calculated taking into account the mean response from all items, and it can range from 0 to 100. The higher overall score the higher overall confidence about controlling their gambling behavior. There is evidence of convergent and discriminant validity, and the internal consistency is high (α=0.99) in a community sample. | Up to 12 months | 
| Change in the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment Scale (URICA; McConnaughy, Prochaska & Velicer, 1983; Spanish validation Gómez-Peña et al., 2011) at Pre-intervention, Post-intervention, 3-, 6-, and 12 months Follow-up. | The URICA is a 32 items self-report instrument that includes four subscales and assesses four of the five stages of change proposed by Prochaska & DiClemente (precontemplation, PC; contemplation, C; action, A; and maintenance, M) on a 5-point Likert type scale (1=strongly disagree; 5=strongly agree). Scores for each subscale range from 8 to 40, and are obtained adding the value of the 5 items that include each subscale. A second-order score is obtained and is referred to the degree of 'Readiness to change' (C+A+M-PC). The URICA shows good psychometric proprieties in a sample of pathological gamblers. The internal consistency values are adequate for the stages of change assessed as well as for the total score corresponding to 'Readiness to change'. Specifically, the Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranges from 0.74 to 0.84 taking into account the different stages (Precontemplation=0.74; Contemplation=0.80; Action=0.84; and Maintenance=0.74) and for the total score is 0.84. | Up to 12 months | 
| Change in the EMI measures during procedure. | Gambling urge intensity (on a scale from 0 Not at all to 10 maximum) and frequency (on a 5-point Likert scale from Never to Almost always), self-efficacy to cope with gambling urges (on a scale from 0 Not at all to 10 Completely), gambling behaviour (yes/no), money wagered (euros), and amount of time gambling (minutes) are also assessed for 90 days in the experimental group. | During procedure. | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Gambling, CBT, Internet program, Efficacy