Symptom Clusters in Individuals Seeking Treatment for Gambling Disorder

Gambling Disorder (GD), diagnostically, is a unidimensional construct where each additional symptom corresponds to increased severity. Many individuals experience addiction symptoms in specific symptom clusters, with membership to one profile of symptoms or other better representing disorder severity than raw symptom counts. This study explored whether similarly informative symptom clusters exist among adults seeking treatment for gambling harms. The sample included 440 adults seeking treatment for gambling disorder who completed an assessment of diagnostic criteria at intake. Three distinct classes were identified through a latent class analysis of GD criteria: Escape and Chasing, Preoccupation and Distress, and All symptoms. The All-symptoms class showed the highest elevation of cognitive distortions but shared similar levels of self-efficacy with the Preoccupation and Distress class. The Escape and Chasing class was found to exhibit the highest level of gambling-related self-efficacy and shared similar levels of cognitive distortions with the Preoccupation and Distress class. Significant differences were found in the demographic variables of having children under the age of 18 and employment status. Results show symptom profiles that run counter to the DSM-5's conceptualization of GD and indicate heterogeneity of individuals seeking treatment from gambling harms. Future areas of research are discussed.