World’s largest problem gambling trial completed in NZ

June 6, 2013

World’s largest problem gambling trial completed in NZ

The world’s largest clinical trial for problem gambling treatment has been conducted in New Zealand by an AUT University research team.

‘The Effectiveness of Problem Gambling Brief Telephone Interventions: A Randomised Controlled Trial’, funded by the Ministry of Health, involved 462 callers to New Zealand’s Gambling Helpline.

Previous trials have been conducted in this area but involved recruited volunteers rather than using people seeking help in a real life setting.

The study, led by AUT’s Professor Max Abbott, involved callers to the helpline being randomly allocated to one of four groups. They received either: (1) the helpline standard treatment, (2) a single motivational interview, (3) a single motivational interview plus a cognitive behavioural self-help book, or (4) the interview plus the workbook plus four follow-up motivational telephone interviews.

Follow-ups with the participants were made at three, six and 12 months to assess their progress.

The results were somewhat surprising, says Professor Abbott. “We expected people getting the more intensive treatments, that included the workbook and follow-up interviews, to do better especially at the 12 month assessment. What we found was that callers in all groups made similar progress. All the interventions work well and more treatment is not necessarily better than less. Not only did most participants significantly reduce their gambling and gambling-related problems, their mental health and quality of life improved markedly.”

The results also showed most people improved in the first three months and this was sustained over the 12-month period. Checks will be made again at the three-year mark.

The findings highlight the current treatment offered through the Helpline is effective for most who call seeking help Professor Abbott says.

“There were some subgroups, however, who did better with the additional interventions. For example, people with more serious gambling problems and those whose treatment goal was to control or reduce gambling rather than stop did better in group 4 than their counterparts in groups 1 and 2. Additionally, there was some evidence that Maori benefitted more from treatment 4.”

“This tells us that while generally, across the board, all treatment types worked, there are some people who respond better to different styles of treatment. This information will help to design treatments that are more efficient and effective and better matched to individual client needs.”

-ENDS-

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