Gambling and suicide
GRG has led influential research into the links between gambling and suicide, helping to establish the issue as a critical public-health concern. We are currently partnered with colleagues from Suicidal Behaviour Research Laboratory, UCL, Thrivin’ Together and and independent lived experience expert as part of a study funded by GREO’s Gambling-Related Suicide Research Programme.
Work by Wardle highlights how gambling-related harms-especially debt, shame, and hidden suffering-can act as pathways to suicidal thoughts and behaviours, with young men at particularly high risk. We contribute to national reviews and inquiries that recognise gambling as a risk factor for suicide, and have shaped calls for improved surveillance, early intervention, and stronger regulatory protections. By foregrounding lived experience and population-level evidence, our research has been instrumental in reframing gambling-related suicide as preventable harm requiring urgent policy action.
You can listen to a Lancet Public Health podcast on the topic, with Wardle, here.
Publications
Wardle, Heather , Kesaite, Viktorija, Tipping, Sarah and McManus, Sally (2023) Changes in severity of problem gambling and subsequent suicide attempts: a longitudinal survey of young adults in Great Britain, 2018-20. Lancet Public Health, 8(3), e217-e225. (doi: 10.1016/S2468-2667(23)00008-7) (PMID:36841562) (PMCID:PMC7614739)
Sichali, Junious Mabo, Dube, Albert, Kachiwanda, Lackson, Wardle, Heather , Crampin, Amelia C. and Bunn, Christopher (2021) Case report: a gambling-related suicide in rural Malawi. Wellcome Open Research, 6, 308. (doi: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17333.1)(PMID:34869913) (PMCID:PMC8609396)
Wardle, Heather and McManus, Sally (2021) Suicidality and gambling among young adults in Great Britain: results from a cross-sectional online survey. Lancet Public Health, 6(1), e39-e49. (doi: 10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30232-2) (PMID:33417845)(PMCID:PMC7788474)
Wardle, Heather , John, A., Dymond, S. and McManus, S. (2020) Problem gambling and suicidality in England: secondary analysis of a representative cross-sectional survey. Public Health, 184, pp. 11-16. (doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2020.03.024) (PMID:32409100)