Abstract

Fundamentals:
Cognitive-behavioral therapy can reduce gambling behavior and other symptoms of pathological gambling.

Aim:
To synthesize and analyze the evidence on the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral interventions to improve the quality of life of people with pathological gambling. Methodology: Systematic review with a narrative synthesis of clinical trials published in English and Spanish in Medline, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, The Cochrane Library Plus, PsycoInfo, and ProQuest of articles until January 2020 that will analyze this phenomenon. The PRISMA Declaration was followed and the quality of the articles was analyzed with the Jadad scale.

Results:
۱۲۳۳ articles were found, including nine in the review. Two studies confirmed the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy-based interventions for improving the quality of life in people with pathological gambling. In addition, these interventions improved depression, anxiety, the amount of money played, and reduced alcohol consumption and the gambling diagnosis score, which had an impact on improving the quality of life. Cognitive behavioral interventions were more effective when it was supported by a manual or when were combined with Mindfulness or Player Anonymous sessions. Having better long-term results in these cases.

Conclusions:
Cognitive behavioral-based interventions can improve the quality of life of people with pathological gambling and other psychological variables without being its immediate effect. Future research should analyze whether they are more efficacy online or in person, individually, or in groups, and the number of sessions required for their effects to last over time.

Introduction

     Gambling is a common activity in almost all cultures that is characterized by including an element of risk when trying to obtain a desired goal, for example, playing a game of chance for money. Gambling activities include a wide variety of activities, from informal games of chance such as sports betting to legal and formal games such as casinos, and can be practiced in various ways online, slot machines, bingo, casino, video games … Although most of the population considers gambling as an enjoyable social and recreational activity, for some people it can be a serious problem becoming pathological gambling or compulsive gambling (Custer, 1984; Salaberría et al., 1998).

     Although most individuals participate in gambling as an enjoyable social activity, a small group of people become too seriously involved in terms of time invested and money wagered, and they continue to gamble despite substantial and negative personal, social, family, and financial effects.

Conclusions

     Cognitive-behavioral therapy can improve the quality of life of people with gambling and other influencing factors, such as decreased stress levels, anxiety, depression, the habit of gambling, and money spent on people with gambling, being more effective the interventions that use a manual and those that combine cognitive-behavioral therapy with Mindfulness or with Gamblers Anonymous support group sessions.

     The effects of cognitive-behavioral therapy are not immediate, but appear at three, six and 12 months. Despite the above, these conclusions should be taken into account with caution, due to the low quality of the studies analyzed. More studies are needed that exclusively analyze the quality of life and help to understand what are the best conditions to apply the interventions (optimal number of sessions, group or individual sessions, and online or face-to-face sessions).