An interventional study of Monetary Incentive for Take-Up of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Gambling Disorder, Gambling Problem and Mental Health Issue, sponsored by Stanford University. Not yet recruiting. Open to participants aged 21 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-04-16.
Sponsored by Stanford University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Other
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:
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.
158 studies on the registry are indexed under Gambling; 42 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 375 is above the median of 66 across 128 interventional studies indexed under Gambling.
Browse Gambling studies →Stanford University is the lead sponsor of 2,168 studies on the registry; 431 are open to participants now.
Of its 267 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 207 (78%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
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.
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
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
Both treatment arms will be offered a monetary incentive (in form of a retail gift card) for undergoing a certain number of CBT sessions.
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.
Time frame: 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).
Time frame: 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).
Time frame: 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.
Time frame: 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.
Time frame: Baseline and 4 months
No study locations are listed for this record.
Plan to share: No
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
Start is estimated for Jun 2025; primary completion for Mar 2026, 9 months later.
Of 47 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Gambling, half reached primary completion within 16 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 10 and three quarters within 51. This study's planned 9 months is below that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 47 studies reached it within 16 months; a quarter within 10 and three quarters within 51.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Apr 2025. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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