Contingency Management in the Treatment of Adolescent Alcohol Drinking Problems

Abstract

Three case studies demonstrated that social and monetary reinforcement for abstinence reduced the rate of excessive alcohol drinking in adolescents. The self-monitoring and extrinsic reinforcement procedures (ABA reversal design) resulted in complete abstinence in a 15-year-old boy with a 10-year history of excessive alcohol abuse and hospitalization for an alcohol-induced psychosis. In the cases of the 13-year-old and 15-year-old girls with extensive alcohol abuse histories, the behavioral interventions decreased the rate of alcohol consumption during treatment phases, but alcohol abuse increased markedly with the removal of the intervention procedures.

Contingent Reinforcement of Personal Goal Activities for Adolescents with Substance Use Disorders During Post‐Residential Continuing Care

“…Relatively few CM studies have been conducted with adolescent substance abusers. An early case study of three adolescents with alcohol use problems demonstrated that the combination of monetary and social reinforcement was useful in reducing or eliminating alcohol use during the CM phase, but that alcohol use markedly increased for two of the three participants during the return to baseline condition 6 . Two studies have also found CM efficacious in reducing cigarette smoking in adolescents 7, 8 …”