Contingency Management

Contingency management (CM) is a systematic reinforcement system founded on basic principles of behavior analysis and operant psychology used to increase drug abstinence and treatment compliance of patients. CM provides vouchers, money, or other reinforcers contingent on drug abstinence, program attendance, social or job skills training, and completing treatment goals of the specific CM program. By increasing the reinforcement for abstinence and nondrug use behaviors, CM seeks to manage the contingencies that influence drug use. The idea behind this is the notion that the effect of reinforcement on a behavior is relative to the reinforcement available for other behaviors. So, drug use occurs because it is reinforcing, but when the relative rate or amount of reinforcement for abstinence and completing treatment goals is increased, abstinence ...