New clinical profiles in gambling disorder in Europe

From an epidemiological point of view, gambling has shown a significant increase in Europe, being one of the activities with the greatest growth at the moment. More specifically, in the adolescent population, between 0.2%-12.3% would present problematic gambling behaviour (Calado et al., 2017). The studies coincide in highlighting that the risk profile in adolescents and young individuals is associated with being male, belonging to an ethnic minority, having a family gambling environment, older adolescents, online gambling, using gambling as a way to escape of negative emotions and associated with the consumption of tobacco and alcohol. Some studies show that the variable age of onset has a very outstanding relevance in the development, course and severity of the disorder (Jiménez-Murcia et al., 2016; Valero-Solís et al., 2018). In Spain, for example, the age of onset of pathological gamblers is 19 years, while in social gamblers it is 23 (DGOJ, 2015; 2017). It has also been shown that 37% of pathological gamblers in treatment have initiated gambling behavior before legal age. One of the possible reasons for the increase of problem gambling rates among adolescents and young individuals is that they are the first generation to experience such a significant increase in gambling opportunities. In addition, one of the type of gambling that has increased the most is sports betting (online and offline). In this gambling form, the perception of risk is lower (it is a more socially accepted type of gambling) and seems to be a leisure activity associated with sport, which favors social cohesion. If we add to all that the advertising and marketing strategies that appear in sporting events, we are faced with an extremely worrying public health situation. All these aspects, from the perspective of different European countries, from the north to the south, in addition to dealing with comorbidities and factors associated with therapeutic success or failure, will be dealt with in this symposium, carried out by clinicians and researchers who work directly on this problem.

Acknowledgment: Research supported by Eat2beNICE/H2020-SFS-2016–2; Ref 728018),FIS-PI17/1167(Co-funded by European Regional Development Fund, ERDF, a way to build Europe), PERIS (Generalitat de Catalunya, SLT006/17/00077) and Plan Nacional de Drogas (18MSP001-20171067).