Incentivizing recovery: Why contingency management works to treat addiction, with Lara Coughlin, PhD, and Michael McDonell, PhD

from Speaking of Psychology · host American Psychological Association

More than half of drug overdose deaths in the U.S. involve stimulants like methamphetamine and cocaine. There are no medications to treat stimulant addiction, but there is a behavioral treatment that works: contingency management, which involves offering tangible, immediate rewards for abstaining from drugs. Lara Coughlin, PhD, and Michael McDonell, PhD, discuss why contingency management works and the psychological principles it’s based on; how it can be used to treat other addictions including alcohol, tobacco and opioids; and recent momentum in moving it from research labs to the real world at large scale. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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This episode is 45 minutes long.

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This episode was published on March 4, 2026.

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