Clinical Consensus Statements on Intervention Content for Gambling Treatment: A Contextualised Delphi Study With Clinical Researchers

Abstract

There is little consensus on the optimal components of gambling psychological treatments. This study aimed to identify clinical consensus statements regarding the perceived effectiveness of gambling intervention content (change techniques, participant/recruitment characteristics, delivery characteristics, and evaluation characteristics) from a panel of researchers with psychological gambling treatment expertise across 11 countries. A two-round modified Delphi study was conducted. Thirty-five panellists rated the perceived effectiveness of 96 gambling intervention components for achieving clinically helpful change, which was defined as “reduction in gambling severity, expenditure, and frequency”. Consensus criteria on effectiveness and ineffectiveness were defined a priori. Consensus statements were identified for four of 19 change techniques (motivational enhancement, relapse prevention, cognitive restructuring, and plan social support), five of 23 participant/recruitment characteristics (e.g. eligibility screening took place), 17 of 47 delivery characteristics (e.g. the therapy goal was to reduce time and/or money spent gambling), and three of seven evaluation characteristics (e.g. specific process or mediators are targeted by the intervention). These statements, when interpreted with consideration of contextual factors, can inform the selection of likely effective components to employ in gambling treatment programs and indicate where future research efforts may be most beneficial.