Gambling addiction in China: a survey of Chinese psychiatrists

Abstract

We studied Chinese psychiatrists’ understanding of gambling addiction, as well as their experiences of and confidence in assessing and treating these patients. To this end, we carried out a postal questionnaire survey of 110 psychiatrists working in China. A majority had seen people with gambling addiction in their practice but only 1 of the 110 psychiatrists had ever received any training in the management of the condition. A large majority of psychiatrists indicated that gambling addiction was an important public health problem and 71.8% said they would like to be more involved in its management. Much more needs to be done to improve the identification and treatment of gambling addiction in China.