Antidepressant prescription as a risk factor for developing gambling disorder: A longitudinal registry-based study in Norway.

Objective: The association between depression and gambling disorder (GD) has been well-researched. However, prior research lacks consensus on the temporal association between depression and GD. Furthermore, the extant literature has not explored the nature of the aforementioned relationship using objective research methodology data and large-scale samples. The present study addressed these research gaps by investigating the longitudinal relationship between antidepressant prescriptions and the likelihood of developing GD using registry data over a period of 11 years (2008-2018).

Methods: Data were derived from the Norwegian Patient Registry (NPR) that was matched with data from the Norwegian Prescription Registry (NorPD). The dataset comprised 27,420 individuals, where 5,131 were diagnosed with GD. A binary logistic regression analysis was conducted where individuals with GD were compared with 22,289 individuals matched on age and gender from NPR.

Results: The results show that individuals with antidepressant prescriptions had higher odds of developing GD (OR = 2.80, 95% CI: 2.60-3.01, p < 0.001). Furthermore, males and older adults were found to have a higher likelihood of being diagnosed with GD.

Conclusions: Depression is known to be one of the most common mental health disorders. The findings show that prior antidepressant prescription is associated with GD, which would be in accordance with the escape hypothesis because some individuals gamble to escape dysphoric feelings, such as depression. The study findings add to the existing knowledge on the temporal association of depression and GD. Furthermore, the results also have significant practical implications.