UK healthcare institute recommends GPs discuss problem gambling with patients
New NICE draft guidance suggests health professionals ask people about their gambling habits during mental health appointments
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has issued draft guidance on identifying, assessing and managing harmful gambling.
The NICE has said that health professionals, including GPs, should ask people attending an appointment presenting with a mental health issue about their gambling habits, akin to how people are asked how much they smoke and drink in a week.
The NICE has said that when people attend appointments for depression, anxiety, suicidal and self-harm thoughts, or in relation to a possible addiction, they have an increased risk of gambling-related harm and has recommended that this needs to be identified by healthcare professionals.
It was also recommended that people are encouraged to take a survey on the NHS website to measure the severity of their gambling using the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI). If the person scores eight or higher, they might have to seek support and treatment from gambling treatment services.
A PGSI score of eight or higher would indicate an individual is in the harmful gambling bracket.
The draft guidance also recommends that healthcare professionals discuss with people whether they have access to blocking software or tools to limit their gambling and whether they’d be open to cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).
The NICE recommends CBT treatment as they said research found it could effectively identify triggers and helps find ways of coping with the feelings, thoughts and urges that may happen before a harmful gambling episode.
The draft also recommends that partners, family members or another close personal friend should be involved in a person’s treatment for gambling harmful.
The NICE defined harmful gambling as “any frequency of gambling that results in people experiencing harm, which could include mental health problems, the breakdown of families or relationships and financial consequences”.
Professor Jonathan Benger, chief medical officer and interim director of the centre for guidelines, said: “Harmful gambling causes immense misery to all those who experience it. We want those needing help or who are at risk to be identified sooner and receive appropriate help.
“The independent committee who made these draft recommendations included both clinicians and people with personal experience of harmful gambling.
“They scrutinised all the available evidence to identify treatments and therapies that have been shown to work and offer good value for money. The result is this useful and usable advice to help NHS clinics as they develop their service,” Benger concluded.
Claire Murdoch, NHS mental health director, added: “Gambling addiction is a cruel disease that destroys people’s lives, and the NHS is already playing its part in treating it with four new specialist clinics opening in recent months and a further three opening later this year, so if you’re struggling, please come forward for help.
“We will work with NICE on this consultation process, and while this new guidance will ensure the NHS can help even more people struggling with gambling addiction to receive evidence-based treatment, it is vital that the billion-pound industry also takes action in line with the government’s white paper to stop people coming to harm in the first place.”
The consultation on NICE’s draft harmful gambling: identification, assessment and management clinical guideline is open until 15 November.