Contingency Management for Stimulant Use Disorder: Real-World Evidence

Contingency management (CM) is a treatment strategy for substance use disorder that provides immediate monetary incentives via vouchers or prize eligibility to reinforce adherence and reduce use of addictive substances. It is most effective for stimulant use disorder, for which we lack medications, but is also effective as an adjunct for other substance use disorders. To evaluate whether CM reduces mortality, researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study among patients in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) health system.

The analysis included 1481 patients with stimulant use disorder who initiated CM between July 2018 and December 2020 and a matched group of 1481 patients who did not initiate CM. In both groups, two-thirds …