Seeking Treatment for Gambling - a 10-year Retrospective Clinical and Register Study of Gambling Patterns and Physical and Psychiatric Comorbidity in Patients With Gambling Disorder

Seeking Treatment for Gambling - a 10-year Retrospective Clinical and Register Study of Gambling Patterns and Physical and Psychiatric Comorbidity in Patients With Gambling Disorder

Retrospective chart review and register study of all patients who sought treatment at Region Skåne gambling disorder treatment unit, from December, 2015, through November, 2025. Patients' problematic gambling patterns, gambling self-exclusion behaviour and existing comorbidities and medications, are studied in association with routes of referral, prior treatment contacts and diagnoses for mental and physical disorders in primary care and specialist care.

For all patients seeking treatment during the full 10-year history of the facility (December, 2015-November, 2025), the following variables are gathered and described and studied with respect to associations with one another:

• Age
• Legal gender
• Tobacco use and alcohol problems requiring treatment
• Problematic gambling type(s), such as sports betting, online casino, horse race betting, land-based electronic gambling machines, bingo, and gambling within videogames.
• History of voluntary self-exclusion from gambling on the Swedish nationwide system for self-exclusion from licensed gambling operators (the so-called 'Spelpaus' system)
• Living conditions (housing) and socio-economic conditions (over-indebtedness, history of enforcement agency contacts, granted debt settlement)
• Current employment status (unemployed, degree of employment)
• Co-morbid psychiatric and physical disorders
• Prescribed medications
• Emergency hospital visits for mental health disorders (at psychiatric emergency units)
• In-patient psychiatric treatment episodes (including duration of hospitalisations)
• Routes of referral to the gambling disorder treatment unit (self-referral, primary care, occupational health care, psychiatric units, social services, health care unit for physical disease, or other units)

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients seeking treatment at the Gambling disorder treatment unit of Region Skåne, Malmö, Sweden, Dec, 2015-Nov, 2025

Exclusion Criteria:

• Treatment occasions considered, after chart review, to not have detected any need for problem gambling assessment or intervention.