Presentations
- Problematic gambling and videogaming
- Other behavioural addictions
Conditions
- Gambling and gaming disorders (online and offline)
- Excludes paraphilias and eating disorders
For each presentation and condition, Advanced Trainees will know how to:
Synthesise
- recognise the clinical presentation
- identify relevant epidemiology, prevalence, pathophysiology, and clinical science
- take a comprehensive clinical history
- conduct an appropriate examination
- establish a differential diagnosis
- plan and arrange appropriate investigations
- consider the impact of illness and disease on patients and their quality of life when developing a management plan
Manage
- provide evidence-based management
- prescribe therapies tailored to patients' needs and conditions
- recognise potential complications of disease and its management, and initiate preventative strategies
- involve multidisciplinary teams
Consider other factors
- identify individual and social factors and the impact of these on diagnosis and management
Presentations
- Gambling or gaming in context of mental health, neurological disorder or cognitive impairment
- Gambling or gaming problems in context of substance use disorders (SUDs)
Conditions
- Cognitive impairment
- Comorbid neurological problems, such as Parkinson disease
- Existing medications
- Mental disorders
- SUD
Higher risk groups
- Lower socioeconomic status communities
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and Māori
- Specific cultural communities
For each presentation and condition, Advanced Trainees will know how to:
Synthesise
- recognise the clinical presentation
- identify relevant epidemiology, prevalence, pathophysiology, and clinical science
- take a comprehensive clinical history
- conduct an appropriate examination
- establish a differential diagnosis
- plan and arrange appropriate investigations
- consider the impact of illness and disease on patients and their quality of life when developing a management plan
Manage
- provide evidence-based management
- prescribe therapies tailored to patients' needs and conditions
- recognise potential complications of disease and its management, and initiate preventative strategies
- involve multidisciplinary teams
Consider other factors
- identify individual and social factors and the impact of these on diagnosis and management
- Common comorbidity patterns
- Developmental and personality-related predictors of gambling and gaming disorders, such as:
- attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- autism
- family history
- impulsivity
- personality disorders
- trauma
- Neurobiological understanding of gambling and gaming disorders
- Underlying evidence behind interventions
- Underpinnings of standardised outcome measures
Clinical tools
- Commonly used outcome measures, such as the Victorian Gambling Screen, GAMES (ICD-11)
- Commonly used tools to screen for cognitive function and mental disorders
- Elements relevant to assessment:
- associated cognitions, somatic features, and emotions
- associated harms, including effects on relationships, core daily roles, and legal and financial status
- patterns of gambling and gaming
- presence of mental health problems, and the interplay between the two
- presence of SUDs and the interplay between the two
- presence of underlying cognitive problems, or neurological problems
- suicide risk
- Gambling and gaming treatment services and supports specific to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and Māori
- Harm minimisation strategies
- Harms and stigmas associated with these disorders
- Impact of conditions and presentations on higher risk communities
- Impact of policy on epidemiology
- Importance of considering comorbidities in management
- Involving multidisciplinary teams as severity and complexity increase
- Patients’ readiness for change in the development of action / management plans
- Persistent co-occurring mental disorders
- Possible adjunctive therapy role of medications
- Role of multidisciplinary care for people with gambling or gaming disorders
- Role of mutual / peer support groups for patients or affected families, such as Gamblers Anonymous and Gaming Addicts Anonymous
- Role of patients’ family or friends as therapeutic supports
- The place of medications for gambling disorder
- The use of management plans developed in collaboration with patients and other health professionals which are based on motivational enhancement and cognitive behavioural interventions
- Use of motivational interviewing to enhance patients’ commitment to addressing behavioural addiction
- Value of screening for these problems in higher risk individuals, such as those with SUD or mental health disorders and prisoners
