Pharmacotherapy and gambling disorder: a narrative review

Abstract

Background

Gambling disorder (GD) is a psychiatric disorder classified in the DSM-5 as a non-substance-related and addictive disorder with extensive health and socioeconomic impacts. Its chronic and high-relapsing nature makes it essential to find treatment strategies that improve functioning and reduce impairment associated with it. The purpose of this narrative review is to evaluate and summarize the available evidence on the effectiveness and safety of pharmacotherapy in GD.

Methods

An electronic literature search of Medline, Embase, and Cochrane Central was conducted to identify systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and reviews on pharmacological interventions in patients with gambling disorder. A similar search of these databases and of Prospero, Clinicaltrials.gov, and Epistemonikos was conducted to identify clinical trials that were published since 2019.

Results

The initial search identified 1925 articles. After screening and duplicate removal, 18 articles were included in the review (11 studies were systematic reviews and meta-analyses, 6 were reviews, and 1 was an open-label trial). Eight pharmacological agents (naltrexone, nalmefene, paroxetine, fluvoxamine, citalopram, escitalopram, lithium, and topiramate) that were studied in randomized controlled trials and open-label trials showed small to moderate effect sizes in reducing GD symptoms in some studies during post-hoc analyses.

Conclusion

The overall sum of evidence in the literature on the use of pharmacotherapy in GD is conflicting and inconclusive. Some studies have shown that pharmacotherapy’s role in GD is promising, especially when the choice of the agent is guided by comorbid psychiatric disorders. However, significant limitations exist in the study designs, which need to be addressed in future research on the topic. Conducting future and more rigorous trials that address the limitations in the existing literature is necessary to establish more accurate efficacy data on the use of pharmacotherapy in this population.

Keywords:

• Gambling
• pharmacotherapy
• antidepressant
• opioid antagonist
• mood stabilizer
• review

View correction statement:

Correction

Acknowledgments

We thank Anne-Marie Auger, research professional, for her help in revising an earlier version of this manuscript, as well as Julie Mayrand (Université de Sherbrooke) and the UCB Library staff for their help in developing the research strategy.

Data availability

The search results are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

SANRA checklist

This narrative review meets the standards of the Scale for the Assessment of Narrative Review Articles (SANRA).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This project received financial support from the Fonds de démarrage de l’Université de Sherbrooke.