Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.
BMC Public Health. 2013 Jan 8;13:10. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-13-10.
Gambling disorders affect about one percent of adults. Effective treatments are available but only a small proportion of affected individuals will choose to attend formal treatment. As a result, self-directed treatments have also been developed and found effective. Self-directed treatments provide individuals with information and support to initiate a recovery program without attending formal treatment. In previous research we developed an telephone-based intervention package that helps people to be motivated to tackle their gambling problem and to use basic behavioral and cognitive change strategies. The present study will investigate the efficacy of this self-directed intervention offered as a free online resource. The Internet is an excellent modality in which to offer self-directed treatment for gambling problems. The Internet is increasingly accessible to members of the public and is frequently used to access health-related information. Online gambling sites are also becoming more popular gambling platforms.
METHOD/DESIGN: A randomized clinical trial (N=180) will be conducted in which individuals with gambling problems who are not interested in attending formal treatment are randomly assigned to have access to an online self-directed intervention or to a comparison condition. The comparison condition will be an alternative website that offers a self-assessment of gambling involvement and gambling-related problems. The participant's use of the resources and their gambling involvement (days of gambling, dollars loss) and their gambling problems will be tracked for a twelve month follow-up period.
The results of this research will be important for informing policy-makers who are developing treatment systems.
ISRCTN06220098.
赌博障碍影响约 1%的成年人。有效的治疗方法是可用的，但只有一小部分受影响的个体将选择参加正式治疗。因此，也已经开发了自我导向的治疗方法，并发现它们是有效的。自我导向的治疗方法为个人提供信息和支持，以启动康复计划，而无需参加正式治疗。在之前的研究中，我们开发了一种基于电话的干预包，帮助人们有动力解决他们的赌博问题，并使用基本的行为和认知改变策略。本研究将调查作为免费在线资源提供的这种自我导向干预的效果。互联网是提供赌博问题自我治疗的极好方式。互联网越来越容易被公众访问，并且经常用于获取与健康相关的信息。在线赌博网站也越来越成为受欢迎的赌博平台。
方法/设计：将进行一项随机临床试验（N=180），其中对不感兴趣参加正式治疗的赌博问题个体进行随机分组，使其可以访问在线自我导向干预或对照条件。对照条件将是提供赌博参与和与赌博相关问题自我评估的替代网站。将跟踪参与者对资源的使用情况以及他们的赌博参与（赌博天数、损失美元）和他们的赌博问题，为期 12 个月的随访期。
这项研究的结果对于为制定治疗系统的决策者提供信息非常重要。
ISRCTN06220098。
