Beliefs About Mental Health Treatment - Gambling Addiction Study in Colorado

NCT06517849 | Not Yet Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: 75109
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 375
• Locations: 0 countries
• Sites: N/A

Brief Summary

Many people with mental health conditions do not seek treatment, and it is unclear what exactly prevents people from taking up treatment. The goal of this interventional study is to learn about how people think about cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for gambling disorders. The main questions it aims to answer are:

• Do people have incorrect beliefs about the net benefits of CBT? If yes, which beliefs are those, and how much do people underestimate or overestimate the benefits?
• Is a small monetary incentive (that participants receive conditional on trying out CBT) helpful in increasing take-up of CBT? Apart from these questions, the researchers will also study how well CBT works to treat gambling disorders. Participants will be asked to complete two surveys over four months and might be offered a modest monetary incentive for doing (free) CBT if they are in the treatment group. Researchers will compare that treatment group to a control group. Participants in the control group will have access to free CBT and do the same two surveys as those in the treatment group, but will not receive the monetary incentive.

Conditions

Gambling Disorder; Gambling Problem; Mental Health Issue

Keywords

Beliefs; Bias; Incentive

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (5)

• Change in Willingness to Pay for CBT

  Change in participants' willingness to pay (in USD; elicited through multiple price lists) for CBT from baseline to follow-up survey.

  Baseline and 4 months

• Change in Beliefs about CBT

  Change in participants' beliefs about therapy (such as effectiveness, unpleasantness, stigma, etc.) will between baseline and follow-up survey (4 months after baseline).

  Baseline and 4 months

• Attendance of CBT sessions

  Dates and number of CBT sessions participants attend (as long as they are with Kindbridge Behavioral Health) between baseline survey and follow-up survey (afer 4 months).

  4 months

• Change in Gambling Consumption

  Amount wagered (in USD) in online and offline gambling by participants over the last month. Difference between stated amount at baseline and stated amount in follow-up survey.

  Baseline and 4 months

• Change in Subjective Well-Being

  Change in measure of participants' wellbeing from baseline to follow-up (at four months), computed using Likert scale style questions about feeling happy/depressed/satisfied/anxious/etc. Answers are on a seven-point scale from "strongly disagree" through "neutral" to "strongly agree." Points for each question are coded such that more positive answers get more points (so from most negative to most positive, the points -1, -2/3, -1/3, 0, 1/3, 2/3, 1 are awarded) and subjective well-being is the sum of all points.

  Baseline and 4 months

Study Arms (3)

No Incentive

NO INTERVENTION

The "No Incentive" arm will participate in two surveys-including questions about beliefs about therapy and willingness to pay for therapy, gambling behavior, and well-being-at the baseline and at the end (four months after the first survey). The arm will have access to free cognitive behavioral therapy through Kindbridge Behavioral Health, but will not receive a monetary incentive to undergo therapy.

Fixed Incentive

EXPERIMENTAL

The "Fixed Incentive" arm will participate in two surveys-including questions about beliefs about therapy and willingness to pay for therapy, gambling behavior, and well-being-at the baseline and at the end (four months after the first survey). The arm will have access to free cognitive behavioral therapy through Kindbridge Behavioral Health and will be offered a modest monetary incentive to undergo therapy. The incentive will be in form of an electronic gift card. The amount of money offered as an incentive will not depend on the participants' survey replies.

Behavioral: Monetary Incentive for Take-Up of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Payment According to Multiple Price List Choices

EXPERIMENTAL

The "Multiple Price List" arm will participate in two surveys-including questions about beliefs about therapy and willingness to pay for therapy, gambling behavior, and well-being-at the baseline and at the end. The arm will have access to free cognitive behavioral therapy through Kindbridge Behavioral Health and might be offered a modest monetary incentive to undergo therapy. More specifically, for all arms, the surveys will include a multiple price list to gauge willingness to pay for CBT. For this "multiple price list" arm, one of the rows from the multiple price list will be (randomly) picked and implemented. Depending on what the participant answered in the randomly picked row, they will either receive an unconditional payment or a payment conditional on undergoing CBT. In either case, the payment will be in form of an electronic gift card.

Behavioral: Monetary Incentive for Take-Up of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Interventions

Monetary Incentive for Take-Up of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy BEHAVIORAL

Both treatment arms will be offered a monetary incentive (in form of a retail gift card) for undergoing a certain number of CBT sessions.

Fixed Incentive; Payment According to Multiple Price List Choices

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 21 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• must reside in Colorado
• must be English-speaking

You may not qualify if:

• does not reside in Colorado
• is not English-speaking

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Stanford University: lead
• Kindbridge Research Institute: collaborator

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Gambling

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Risk-Taking; Behavior; Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders; Mental Disorders

Study Officials

• Sarah Bogl

  Stanford University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

• Matt Brown

  Stanford University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

• Mariana Guido

  Stanford University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

• Nick Grasley

  Stanford University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Sarah Bogl

CONTACT

6504696028; sbogl@stanford.edu

Matt Brown

CONTACT

mbrown35@stanford.edu

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: CARE PROVIDER
• Masking Details: Participants will know whether they are offered the incentive or not. Care providers (i.e., counselors at Kindbridge Behavioral Health) will not know (and participants can access care regardless of whether they are in the treatment group or not).
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Graduate Student

Model Details: Participants in the control group will take two (paid) surveys and have access to free cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Participants in the treatment group will be offered an additional payment (in the form of gift cards) to undergo a certain number of CBT sessions with Kindbridge Behavioral Health.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: July 18, 2024
• First Posted: July 24, 2024
• Study Start: June 1, 2025
• Primary Completion: March 1, 2026
• Study Completion: March 1, 2026
• Last Updated: April 16, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-04

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share