Contingency management effects on delay discounting among patients receiving smoking cessation treatment.
BACKGROUND
Increasing evidence suggests that delay discounting may change following effective interventions. Nonetheless, previous studies that assessed the effect of contingency management (CM) on delay discounting are scarce, and their results are mixed. The current study assessed whether CM in conjunction with a cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT) for smoking cessation was associated with changes in delay discounting at end-of-treatment and at 6-month follow-up compared to CBT alone.


METHODS
One hundred and sixteen treatment-seeking smokers were randomly assigned either to CM + CBT (n = 69) or to CBT alone (n = 47). Participants completed delay discounting assessments at the intake, at end-of-treatment, and at 6-month follow-up. We evaluated CM&rsquo;s effect on discounting with parametric and nonparametric methods.


RESULTS
Between-group analyses showed that none of the interventions changed delay discounting from intake to end-of-treatment or to 6-month follow-up. Nonetheless, some within-group analyses showed that the CM + CBT condition evidenced some degree of reduction.


CONCLUSIONS
The current results suggest that CM intervention is not robustly associated with delay discounting changes. Future studies should address treatments that may potentially change delay discounting.
Universidad de Oviedo.
Sara
S
Weidberg
Reid D
RD
Landes
Carla
C
López-Núñez
Irene
I
Pericot-Valverde
Alba
A
González-Roz
Jin H
JH
Yoon
Roberto
R
Secades-Villa
D000328:Adult; D019540:Area Under Curve; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D065786:Delay Discounting; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000523:psychology*; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy