Grant: Operating Grant

Gambling disorders affect about one in ten Canadian 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 intervention package that helps people to be motivated to tackle their gambling problem and to use basic behavioral and cognitive change strategies. This intervention is offered in a combined telephone and self-help workbook package. In two separate evaluations, participants with gambling disorders were followed for one year (N = 314) and two years (N = 101) and showed sustained reduction of gambling involvement. 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 increasingly used to access health-related information. Online gambling sites are also becoming more popular gambling platforms. A 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.