Hodgins David C, Williams Robert J, Belanger Yale D, Christensen Darren R, El-Guebaly Nady, McGrath Daniel S, Nicoll Fiona, Shaw Carrie A, Stevens Rhys M G
Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB, Canada.
Front Psychiatry. 2022 Aug 17;13:892238. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.892238. eCollection 2022.
This study examined past year attempts to reduce or quit gambling among people who gamble generally and those with gambling problems specifically.
Regular gamblers recruited from an online panel ( = 10,054) completed a survey of gambling, mental health and substance use comorbidity and attempts to reduce or quit gambling. The sample was weighted to match the gambling and demographic profile for the same subsample (i.e., past month gamblers) in a recent Canadian national survey.
5.7% reported that they tried to cutback or stop gambling in the past year. As predicted, individuals making a change attempt had greater levels of problem gambling severity and were more likely to have a gambling problem. Of individuals with problem gambling, 59.8% made a change attempt. Of those, 90.2% indicated that they did this primarily on their own, and 7.7% accessed formal or informal treatment. Most people attempting self- change indicated that this was a personal preference (55%) but about a third reported feeling too ashamed to seek help. Over a third (31%) reported that their attempt was successful. Of the small group of people accessing treatment, 39% described it as helpful.
Whereas gambling treatment-seeking rates are low, rates of self-change attempts are high. The public health challenge is to promote self-change efforts among people beginning to experience gambling problems, facilitate success at self-change by providing accessible support for use of successful strategies, and provide seamless bridges to a range of other treatments when desired or required.
本研究调查了过去一年中一般赌博者以及有赌博问题者减少或停止赌博的尝试情况。
从一个在线样本库招募的经常赌博者（n = 10,054）完成了一项关于赌博、心理健康和物质使用共病情况以及减少或停止赌博尝试的调查。该样本经过加权处理，以匹配最近一项加拿大全国性调查中相同子样本（即过去一个月内赌博者）的赌博和人口统计学特征。
5.7%的人报告称他们在过去一年中试图减少或停止赌博。正如预期的那样，进行改变尝试的个体赌博问题严重程度更高，且更有可能存在赌博问题。在有赌博问题的个体中，59.8%进行了改变尝试。其中，90.2%表示他们主要是自行尝试，7.7%寻求了正式或非正式治疗。大多数尝试自我改变的人表示这是个人偏好（55%），但约三分之一的人报告因感到过于羞愧而不愿寻求帮助。超过三分之一（31%）的人报告他们的尝试取得了成功。在寻求治疗的一小部分人中，39%表示治疗有帮助。
尽管寻求赌博治疗的比例较低，但自我改变尝试的比例较高。公共卫生面临的挑战是，在刚开始出现赌博问题的人群中促进自我改变的努力，通过为成功策略的使用提供可及的支持来促进自我改变的成功，并在需要时提供通往一系列其他治疗的无缝衔接。
