Pilot trial investigating a brief behavioral economic intervention as an adjunctive treatment for alcohol use disorder

Meshesha, Lidia Z.; Soltis, Kathryn E.; Wise, Edward A.; Rohsenow, Damaris J.; Witkiewitz, Katie; Murphy, James G.

doi:10.1016/j.jsat.2020.108002

Cited by 40 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 40 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Although this group remained at higher risk than the HR trajectory, they clearly had a substantial response to the BMI + SFAS intervention. This is consistent with a more general body of basic and applied research indicating that increasing substancefree reward is associated with reductions in drinking and drug use (Higgins et al, 2004;Lamb & Ginsberg, 2018) and provides specific support for reinforcement-based intervention approaches (Daughters et al, 2008;Fazzino et al, 2019;Meshesha et al, 2020), in particular for individuals who present with low levels of environmental reward.…”

Section: Reward Trajectory As a Moderator Of Treatment Effectssupporting

confidence: 84%

Trajectories of reward availability moderate the impact of brief alcohol interventions on alcohol severity in heavy‐drinking young adults

Murphy

Campbell

Joyner

et al. 2021

Alcoholism Clin & Exp Res

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Behavioral economic theory predicts that low access to environmental reward is a risk factor for alcohol use disorder (AUD). The Substance-Free Activity Session (SFAS) is a behavioral economic supplement to standard brief alcohol interventions that attempts to increase environmental reward and may therefore have beneficial effects, particularly for individuals with low levels of environmental reward. Methods: Participants were 393 college students who reported at least 2 heavydrinking episodes in the past month. Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions following a baseline assessment: a standard alcohol-focused brief motivational intervention plus relaxation training session (BMI + RT), BMI plus Substance-Free Activity Session (BMI + SFAS), or an assessment-only control condition (AO). In a secondary analysis of the data from this study, we used person-centered statistical techniques to describe trajectories of alcohol severity and environmental reward over a 16-month follow-up and examined whether environmental reward levels moderated the effectiveness of the interventions. Results: Piecewise growth mixture modeling identified 2 trajectories of reward availability: low increasing (LR; n = 120) and high stable (HR; n = 273). Depressive symptoms, cannabis use, sensation seeking, and low life satisfaction were associated with a greater probability of classification in the LR trajectory. Alcohol severity was greater in the LR trajectory than the HR trajectory. For students in the LR trajectory, at 1, 6, and 12 months, BMI + SFAS led to greater increases in reward availability and reduced levels of alcohol severity compared with the BMI + RT and AO conditions and at 16 months compared with AO.Conclusions: Young adults with low levels of environmental reward are at heightened risk for greater alcohol severity and may show greater benefit from brief alcohol interventions that focus on increasing substance-free reward than individuals who are not deficient in reward availability.

show abstract

Section: Reward Trajectory As a Moderator Of Treatment Effectssupporting

confidence: 84%

Trajectories of reward availability moderate the impact of brief alcohol interventions on alcohol severity in heavy‐drinking young adults

Murphy

Campbell

Joyner

et al. 2021

Alcoholism Clin & Exp Res

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Research further suggests that increasing the salience of delayed outcomes of behavioral patterns can reduce impulsive response patterns and increase future orientation (Ashe & Wilson, 2020); for example, focused thinking and writing about potential positive future events (“episodic future thinking”) can reduce delay discounting and alcohol demand and may promote positive behavior change (Patel & Amlung, 2020; Snider et al, 2016), especially if integrated in an approach focused on increasing substance-free activities (Meshesha et al, 2020). Episodic future thinking has also been found to reduce energy intake in adults (Daniel et al, 2013) and children (Daniel et al, 2015).…”

Section: Present Status Of Research On Addictive Behavior As Behavior...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Addictive behavior as molar behavioral allocation: Distinguishing efficient and final causes in translational research and practice.

Tucker¹,

Buscemi²,

Murphy³

et al. 2023

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective: Translational research on addictive behaviors viewed as molar behavioral allocation is critically reviewed. This work relates rates of behavior to rates of reinforcement over time and has been fruitfully applied to addictive behaviors, which involve excessive allocation to short-term rewards with longer term costs. Method: Narrative critical review. Results: This approach distinguishes between final and efficient causes of discrete behaviors. The former refers to temporally extended behavior patterns into which the act fits. The latter refers to environmental stimuli or internal psychological mechanisms immediately preceding the act. Final causes are most clear when addictive behaviors are studied over time as a function of changing environmental circumstances. Discrete acts of addictive behavior are part of an extended/molar behavior pattern when immediate constraints on engagement are low and few rewarding alternatives are available. Research framed by efficient causes often use behavioral economic simulation tasks as individual difference variables that precede discrete acts. Such measures show higher demand for addictive commodities and steeper discounting in various risk groups, but whether they predict molar addictive behavior patterning is understudied. Conclusions: Although efficient cause analysis has dominated translational research, research supports viewing addictive behavior as molar behavioral allocation. Increasing concern with rate variables underpinning final cause analysis and considering how study methods and temporal units of analysis inform an efficient or final cause analysis may advance understanding of addictive behaviors that occur over time in dynamic environmental contexts. This approach provides linkages between behavioral science and disciplines that study social determinants of health.

show abstract

“…Nonetheless, future studies should use targeted approaches to screening or employ less stringent inclusion criteria to improve the generalizability of this type of intervention. Finally, future research should evaluate the utility of integrating EFT with behavioral economic intervention elements that are designed to increase engagement in substance-free activities (Meshesha et al, 2020). This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.…”

Section: Strengths Limitations and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Episodic future thinking as a brief alcohol intervention for heavy drinking college students: A pilot feasibility study.

Voss¹,

Jorgensen

Murphy

2022

Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Episodic future thinking (EFT), an exercise that involves cognitive simulation of future events, has demonstrated proximal effects on alcohol demand and delayed reward discounting (DRD). However, few studies have investigated EFT's potential to reduce alcohol use and increase positive behaviors outside of the laboratory. This study is the first to pilot an academic goal-relevant EFT (A-EFT) intervention for heavy drinking college students. The primary goals were to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of A-EFT in this population. A secondary goal was to evaluate between-and within-condition changes from baseline to post-intervention and 1-month assessments. Participants were 45 undergraduates (73% women, 53% White, 27% Black) who reported at least two past-month heavy drinking episodes (4/5 drinks for women/men). Participants were randomized to a brief in-person A-EFT intervention or to a vivid memory task (VMT) control. In support of feasibility and acceptability, recruitment and retention rates were over 80% and participants rated the A-EFT intervention as enjoyable, personally relevant, and interesting. In support of initial efficacy, participants assigned to A-EFT increased the amount of time spent studying compared to controls (d = 1.16) at 1-month assessment. Participants in the A-EFT group reported moderate effect size reductions in alcohol consumption, and a similar size increase in protective drinking strategies. Demand intensity decreased moderately at post-intervention for participants in the A-EFT condition but there was little change in DRD. The current study provides support for the feasibility and acceptability of an academic goal-relevant EFT intervention and for further research to establish treatment efficacy.

show abstract

Pilot trial investigating a brief behavioral economic intervention as an adjunctive treatment for alcohol use disorder

Cited by 40 publications

References 40 publications

Trajectories of reward availability moderate the impact of brief alcohol interventions on alcohol severity in heavy‐drinking young adults

Trajectories of reward availability moderate the impact of brief alcohol interventions on alcohol severity in heavy‐drinking young adults

Addictive behavior as molar behavioral allocation: Distinguishing efficient and final causes in translational research and practice.

Episodic future thinking as a brief alcohol intervention for heavy drinking college students: A pilot feasibility study.

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About