Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of contingency management (CM) – a behavioral intervention applied to substance abuse (or more specifically to substance use disorders, SUD). Among psychosocial interventions, CM is one with the highest levels of evidence of effectiveness and efficacy for different populations and SUD-related outcomes. Basically, CM aims to change the environment of the individual to increase responses that are alternative or incompatible to substance use. This is done by frequently and objectively monitoring a target behavior and immediately and abundantly reinforcing the emission of this response. In most CM studies, the target behavior has been abstinence, but other outcomes, such as attendance and treatment retention, have also been evaluated. Due to concerns about the costs of implementing CM, some variations of its procedures were developed and are presented in this chapter. Despite these variations, however, the efficacy of CM is directly related to its adequacy to underlying behavioral principles. In Brazil, CM is known by few and has practically not been applied in treatment settings. This chapter presents an overview of CM as well as a case study to illustrate the possibility of using CM in the clinical context. It concludes by highlighting the importance of researching and implementing this intervention in Brazil.
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Silva, K.d.S., Miguel, A.d.Q.C., Sampaio, A.A.S. (2021). Contingency Management as Intervention for Substance Abuse. In: Andrade, A.L.M., De Micheli, D., Silva, E.A.d., Lopes, F.M., Pinheiro, B.d.O., Reichert, R.A. (eds) Psychology of Substance Abuse. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62106-3_19
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