Contingency Management Effect on Cocaine Use While Using Methadone

An estimated 50 % of patients on methadone use cocaine concurrently (Holuj et al., 2013). Participants using cocaine were three times more likely to drop out of methadone maintenance treatment (MMT)and are less likely to have cocaine/opiate free urine samples (Kosten et al., 2003). Contingency Management (CM) has been shown to be effective in the reduction of cocaine use for participant on methadone but there isn’t a comprehensive evaluation of all of the research completed. This systematic review evaluated the research on the short and long term effectiveness of CM on cocaine use, the effectiveness of the various types of CM, the effect of the magnitude of CM and the timing of CM administration. CM was found to have short and long term success in reducing cocaine use among participants on MMT. CM was most successful when continuously given and the magnitude of the reinforcement was highest. CM was shown to be effective in all forms. Differences in the research studies made it difficult to determine which type of CM was most effective with the exception of one article that showed clear benefits with cash/check CM compared to voucher CM