The effectiveness of incentives in enhancing treatment attendance and drugabstinence in methadone-maintained pregnant women

This study examined the effectiveness of short-term contingency management for eliminating cocaine use and increasing full day treatment attendance wi th pregnant methadone-maintained women randomly assigned to either an escal ating voucher incentive schedule (n = 44) or non-incentive (n = 36) conditi ons. Full day treatment attendance and urine toxicology for cocaine and her oin were assessed and consequated for 14 days. The escalating voucher incen tive schedule significantly increased full day treatment attendance and dru g abstinence compared to the non-incentive schedule. These results suggest that reinforcing the co-occurrence of two required behaviors (treatment att endance and abstinence from illicit drug use) is effective, and may be an i mportant adjunct to methadone pharmacotherapy for treating pregnant drug de pendent women. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.