Effective of Contingency Management for Drug Addiction Patients in Aftercare

Abstract

The aim of the study was to evaluate the result of two different follow-up methods for the treatment of drug addiction: providing incentive versus general method. The samples were 88 in-patients who were discharged from the Princess Mother National Institute on Drug Abuse Treatment (PMNIDAT) and had been in the follow-up stage. They were divided into two groups, 44 each, for the experimental and the control groups. The participants who obtained the odd number was included in the experimental group and received an incentive which could be exchanged to food, beverages and paying for the medicines if the participant came on schedule and the urine result was negative. An individual who obtained an even number was included in the control group receiving ordinary service of the hospital. The instruments in the study were general demographic questionnaires and report for follow up. The descriptive statistic and Chi-square were applied for data analysis. It was found that the number of patients in the control group participating in the follow-up process in the first month was significantly higher than the experimental group (p<0.05). The number of negative urine testing results in the experimental group was significantly higher than controls in the first month of the study (p<0.05). However, there was no difference observed in the second and the third months. Thus, it is recommended that the concept of reinforcement together with the provision of incentives should be applied along with the hospital’s ordinary follow-up process for the addicts. The aim of the method is to keep the clients’ motivation to stay longer in the treatment system and maintain themselves to stop using the drug as long as possible. However, the reinforcement by providing incentives provides a good result in the short period. Therefore, development and design for effective incentives to increase the period of reinforcement should be developed in order that the addict’s behaviour change be consistent with the goal of the treatment