Low-Cost Incentives Improve Outcomes in Substance Abuse Treatment.

NIDA Notes 2006;21(1).

Lori Whitten (NIDA Notes staff writer).

This article summarizes the outcomes of Dr. Maxine Stitzer's research on motivational incentives (CTN-0006 "Motivational Incentives for Enhanced Drug Abuse Recovery: Drug Free Clinics"), as reported in Archives of General Psychiatry in 2005. In this protocol, researchers found that stimulant abusers offered a chance to win prizes in exchange for providing drug-free urine samples were four times as likely to attain 12 weeks of continuous abstinence as peers who were not offered this incentives. Prizes for the incentive intervention cost the programs about $200, or $2.42 a day per participant. The new NIDA/SAMHSA Blending Initiative package about motivational incentives (Promoting Awareness of Motivational Incentives (PAMI)) is also highlighted. It is due to be released in Fall 2006. (Newsletter article, HTML, English, 2006)

Keywords: Behavior therapy | Contingency management (CM) | MIEDAR | Motivational incentives | Retention | Stimulant abuse | NIDA Notes (newsletter)

Document No: 154

Submitted by CTN Dissemination Librarians, 11/14/2006.