Overview of special sub-section on money management articles: cross-disciplinary perspectives on money management by addicts.
BACKGROUND
How addicts manage their funds can be understood from the studies of impulsive spending, contingency management, self-reported expenditures, behavioral economics, and anthropology.


OBJECTIVE
To show how these differing perspectives can provide theoretical explanations for substance abuse, they were applied to the question of when extra "windfall" funds are spent on substances of abuse. Treatment implications of these perspectives were examined.


METHODS
Relevant literature was reviewed.


RESULTS
Behavioral economics and related approaches provide the basis for money-management-based interventions targeting substance abuse, informed configuration of reinforcers to compete with substances, and therapeutically framing the choice between abstinence and substance use.


CONCLUSIONS
A cross-discipline consideration of how addicts manage their funds has the potential to inform and improve substance abuse treatment.
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, West Haven, CT, USA. marc.rosen@yale.edu
Marc I
MI
Rosen
D055030:Drug Users / Q000523:psychology*; D060909:Economics, Behavioral; D006801:Humans; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000191:economics* / Q000523:psychology