Floral therapy and relaxation treatment for patients with compulsive gambling addiction

Abstract

Introduction:

Gambling addiction is a disorder where the person is forced, due to an uncontrollable psychological urge, to gamble and bet.

Objective:

Use a combined psychotherapeutic treatment of floral therapy and relaxation in compulsive gambling patients.

Methods:

A quasi-experimental study of psychotherapeutic intervention without a control group was carried out, before and after, in compulsive gambling patients, from the Madruga health area, in the period January 2020 to January 2021. The universe was 60 patients dispensed as gamblers from the mental health center, selecting from them, by intentional non-probabilistic sampling, by criterion a sample of 35 patients. Variables such as age, sex, type of player, types of game, comorbidities, symptoms and treatment were analyzed. Descriptive statistics were used to process the data.

Results: 

The male sex predominated in 60% of the patients, the age group of 25-40 years in 62.8%. 80% presented a type of player based on necessity and the bolita or charade stood out as a type of game in 68.5%. 82.8% of the patients had anxiety symptoms before the intervention and 42.8% afterwards, depression 71.4% and 37.1% afterwards, and comorbidity with addictions 85.7% before and 42.8% afterwards.

Conclusions:

The union of both therapies is a treatment solution for compulsive gambling patients, it is effective in reducing symptoms of anxiety, depression, comorbidity to alcohol and other drugs.