This study examined the relationship between antidepressant prescriptions and the likelihood of developing gambling disorder over time. In doing so, the researchers used antidepressant prescriptions as a proxy for depression diagnosis. The researchers used data from the Norwegian Patient Registry (NPR) and the Norwegian Prescription Registry (NorPD) from 2008 to 2018. The study group included 5,131 patients who were diagnosed with gambling disorder. This group was compared to 22,289 patients with other illnesses (control group) who were matched in terms of age and gender.
A total of 1,488 patients were prescribed antidepressants before they received a gambling disorder diagnosis. Patients who were prescribed antidepressants were 2.8 times as likely to develop gambling disorder as those who were not prescribed antidepressants. Women were less likely to develop gambling disorder compared to men (odds of 0.78). For each passing year, the chance of developing gambling disorder went up by 1% for patients who were prescribed antidepressants.
