Contingency management is one of the most efficacious interventions to promote drug abstinence. Contingency management has traditionally been delivered in person so that clinicians could confirm drug abstinence and provide access to additional therapeutic services. Now, new technologies not only permit remote confirmation of abstinence, but also remote delivery of incentives. We discuss several technology-based tools to assess substance use, and new ways to deliver contingency management to promote tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis abstinence. These new tools have the potential to dramatically increase access while maintaining high levels of treatment fidelity. Technology-based methods also allow arranging group contingencies that harness online communities, and they permit targeting multiple health-risk behaviors with a combination of sensor-based technologies. Overall, there are unprecedented opportunities to link technology with contingency management to promote drug abstinence.
Keywords: Contingency management; Incentives; Substance-use disorders; Technology.
© Association for Behavior Analysis International 2019.