Department of Library, Information Science, and Communication, University of Barcelona, Melcior de Palau 140, 08014, Barcelona, Spain.
Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital of Bellvitge-IDIBELL, Barcelona, Spain.
J Gambl Stud. 2022 Jun;38(2):681-697. doi: 10.1007/s10899-021-10064-9. Epub 2021 Oct 16.
Online gambling has significantly altered the situational and structural characteristics of gambling products, to the extent that online gamblers might be substantially different from traditional offline gamblers. A growing body of literature has identified the evolving features of online gambling and the individuals who engage in it. However, beyond understanding the individual characteristics of this subgroup, relatively less effort has been made to examine whether existing cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) approaches are still entirely relevant for online problem gamblers, or whether changes are needed to adapt according to gambling mode of access. To understand what kind of challenges online gambling poses to mental health professionals dealing with disordered gamblers, four focus groups comprising 28 Spanish participants were carried out. All the treatment providers had ongoing experience with online gamblers undergoing treatment, and included clinical psychologists, mental health social workers, and a medical doctor. The data were examined using thematic analysis. The analysis identified five main themes that characterised online gamblers: (1) being of younger age, (2) lack of conflicts at home and at work/educational centre, rarely presenting violent or aggressive behaviour, (3) gambling disorder only being identified by overdue debt, (4) co-occurring conditions with technology-related abuse rather than other substance-related addictions, and (5) skill-based gambling. The study highlights mental health workers' perceived insecurities about how to best treat online gamblers, and discusses the specific characteristics that CBT for gambling disorder might need to incorporate to adjust for this particular group of gamblers.
在线赌博极大地改变了赌博产品的情境和结构特征，以至于在线赌客可能与传统的线下赌客有很大的不同。越来越多的文献已经确定了在线赌博的演变特征和参与其中的个人。然而，除了了解这一亚组的个体特征外，相对较少的努力被用于研究现有的认知行为疗法（CBT）方法是否仍然完全适用于在线问题赌徒，或者是否需要根据赌博方式的改变进行调整。为了了解在线赌博对处理障碍性赌徒的心理健康专业人员构成了什么样的挑战，进行了四个由 28 名西班牙参与者组成的焦点小组。所有的治疗提供者都有治疗在线赌徒的持续经验，包括临床心理学家、心理健康社会工作者和一名医生。使用主题分析来检查数据。分析确定了五个特征性的在线赌徒主题：（1）年龄较小，（2）家庭和工作/教育中心没有冲突，很少表现出暴力或攻击性行为，（3）只有逾期债务才会发现赌博障碍，（4）与技术相关的滥用共病，而不是其他物质相关的成瘾，以及（5）基于技能的赌博。这项研究强调了心理健康工作者对如何最好地治疗在线赌徒的不安全感，并讨论了赌博障碍的 CBT 需要纳入的特定特征，以适应这一特定的赌徒群体。
