Placebo and nocebo effects in gambling disorder pharmacological trials: a meta-analysis

Placebo and nocebo effects are widely reported across psychiatric conditions, yet have seldom been examined in the context of gambling disorder. Through meta-analysis, we examined placebo effects, their moderating factors, and nocebo effects, from available randomised, controlled pharmacological clinical trials in gambling disorder.

We searched, up to 19 February 2024, a broad range of databases, for double-blind randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of medications for gambling disorder. Outcomes were gambling symptom severity and quality of life (for efficacy), and drop outs due to medication side effects in the placebo arms.

We included 16 RCTs (n = 833) in the meta-analysis. The overall effect size for gambling severity reduction in the placebo arms was 1.18 (95%CI 0.91-1.46) and for quality of life improvement was 0.63 (0.42-0.83). Medication class, study sponsorship, trial duration, baseline severity of gambling and publication year significantly moderated effect sizes for at least some of these outcome measures. Author conflict of interest, placebo run-in, gender split, severity scale choice, age of participants or unbalanced randomisation did not moderate effect sizes. Nocebo effects leading to drop out from the trial were observed in 6% of participants in trials involving antipsychotics, while this was less for other medication types.

Placebo effects in trials of pharmacological treatment of gambling disorder are large, and there are several moderators of this effect. Nocebo effects were measureable and may be influenced by medication class being studied. Practical implications of these new findings for the field are discussed, along with recommendations for future clinical trials.