Affiliations: National Addictions Management Service, Institute of Mental Health, Singapore
Correspondence:
[*]
Corresponding author: Melvyn Zhang, %Psychiatry Senior Resident, Institute of Mental Health, 10 Buangkok View, Buangkok Green Medical Park 539747, Singapore. Tel.: +65 63892000; Fax: +65 63892000; E-mail:melvynzhangweibin@gmail.com
Abstract: BACKGROUND:
Problem or pathological gambling has been a worldwide concern in the recent
years, especially so with the advances in the technology, facilitating
easier access to various means of gambling. Along with the advances in
web-based and smartphone technologies, these technologies have been recently
applied as adjunctive clinical tools to help gamblers. Taking into careful
consideration the existing evidence base for Internet based interventions
for pathological gambling, it seemed that the current published literature
has demonstrated largely the efficacy of a personalized feedback
intervention for pathological gambling; and further studies are still
under-going to try and demonstrate the clinical feasibility of online
web-based cognitive behavioral interventions for pathological gamblers. OBJECTIVES:
Given this, the aims of the current study are to (a) replicate an online
personalized feedback intervention and determine its receptiveness in an
Asian cohort of gamblers; and (b) to identify the demographics and
characteristics of Asian gamblers who would utilize an online
intervention. METHODOLOGY:
The workgroup at the National Addiction Management Service, Singapore
conceptualized the online personalized feedback intervention for gamblers.
The English version was launched on the 31st of March 2014 and the
Chinese version was launched on the 30th of September 2014.
RESULTS:
A cumulative total of 708 participants took part with rhe mean age of the
participants being 32.70 (SD = 11.638), with 89.1% males and 10.9%
females. The mean problem gambling severity score (PGSI) was 10.80
(SD = 8.13), with the vast majority participating in Casino gambling on board
a cruise (36.0%). Of significance, approximately 59.2% of the
participants who sought help with our online e-intervention did have a
diagnosis of problem gambling.
CONCLUSIONS:
This is one of the first few studies to demonstrate and replicate the
potential use of an Internet based intervention for non-problem and problem
gamblers. The current study has demonstrated that individuals are generally
receptive towards such an intervention.
Keywords: Gambling, addiction, Internet intervention, Singapore
