Behavioral rewards to change bad behavior is a common concept. Parents reward children to do chores or do good things to reinforce the good behavior with reward. Contingency Management in addiction looks at the same principle. In some cases, with stimulants and meth, it has been successful, with others, such as opioids it has not had as much success. Sometimes, rewards have been misused if they have monetary value. Still despite this, when combined with other therapies, it can prove useful.
The article, “This Addiction Treatment Works. Why Is It So Underused?” by Abby Goodnough looks at this way of rewarding. She states,
“The treatment is called contingency management, because the rewards are contingent on staying abstinent. A number of clinical trials have found it highly effective in getting people addicted to stimulants like cocaine and methamphetamine to stay in treatment and to stop using the drugs. But outside the research arena and the Department of Veterans Affairs, where Mr. Kelty is a patient, it is nearly impossible to find programs that offer such treatment — even as overdose deaths involving meth, in particular, have soared.”
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