Experiences and perceptions of gamblers using gambling, mental health and alcohol and other drug use online forums: A natural language processing approach
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posted on 2024-07-18, 22:45 authored by Stephanie MerkourisStephanie Merkouris, Nicki Dowling, George Youssef, Simone RoddaExperiences and perceptions of gamblers using gambling, mental health and alcohol and other drug use online forums: A natural language processing approach
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engResearch statement
Background Research has shown high rates of co-occurring gambling problems and mental health disorders across gambling, mental health and alcohol and other drug (AOD) samples. Understanding the nature of the temporal relationship between these conditions is growing, but there is limited research examining the interaction between gambling problems and mental health/AOD issues from the gambler’s perspective. Moreover, despite self-directed help-seeking being the most utilised help-seeking option, research relating to the help-seeking behaviour of gamblers has predominately utilised samples of treatment-seeking gamblers from face-to-face treatment services. Contribution There is now a large amount of rich data available through online sources. Few studies have drawn on samples of online gambling forum users to understand the co-occurrence and help-seeking for gambling problems, mental health and AOD issues. This is due, in part, to limitations of existing methodologies in which data extraction and analysis of large data sets was not feasible. To address these limitations, this is the first study in the gambling field to use Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to explore experiences and perceptions of the relationship between co-morbid gambling and mental health/AOD problems and help-seeking in online forum users. Significance Using this method resulted in a substantially larger and more representative sample of help-seeking gamblers, as opposed to most research which has typically focussed on face-to-face help-seeking gamblers. The findings highlight specific areas that resources could target including gambling and stress, gambling debt and finances, and the impact of mental health and AOD on gambling problems and recovery. Meanwhile, gambling and mental health/AOD online forums could be used to promote and increase access to gambling-related information and resources, such as help-seeking options.Publication classification
A6 Research report/technical paperPublisher
Victorian Responsible Gambling FoundationUsage metrics
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