Substance abuse treatment patients with early onset cocaine use respond as well to contingency management interventions as those with later onset cocaine use

• Published in: Journal of substance abuse treatment 2014-08, Vol.47 (2), p.146-150
• Main Authors: Weiss, Lindsay M., M.D, Petry, Nancy M., Ph.D
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Addictive behaviors; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Age of Onset; Biological and medical sciences; Cocaine; Cocaine - administration & dosage; Cocaine-Related Disorders - rehabilitation; Contingency management; Correlation analysis; Desintoxication. Drug withdrawal; Drug addiction; Drug use; Early onset drug use; Female; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Miscellaneous; Outpatient treatment; Patient Dropouts - statistics & numerical data; Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; Reinforcement (Psychology); Retrospective Studies; Risk assessment; Substance abuse treatment; Treatment Outcome; Treatments
• ISSN: 0740-5472; 1873-6483
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jsat.2014.04.003

Abstract Early onset drug use is associated with increased risk of developing substance use disorders, but relatively little is known about the correlates of early drug use among adults receiving treatment. A retrospective analysis of a randomized study of contingency management treatment compared cocaine-dependent patients who reported initial cocaine use at age 14 or younger ( n = 41) to those who began using after age 14 ( n = 387). Patients with early onset cocaine use had more legal and psychiatric problems than those who initiated cocaine use later. Patients with early-onset cocaine use also dropped out of treatment sooner and achieved less sustained abstinence than those who began using at older ages, but the interaction between age of first use and treatment condition was not significant. Early-onset cocaine use is associated with persistent psychosocial problems and an overall poor response to treatment. However, contingency management is efficacious in improving outcomes in early onset cocaine users.