Rudy E. Vuchinich - US grants

This research project will develop the methods necessary to investigate the determinants of alcoholic relapse from the perspective of behavioral-economic theories of choice. Earlier work on the relapse problem supports this type of analysis, which seeks to identify the environmental contexts within which alcohol consumption emerges from among a set of behavioral alternatives as the most preferred activity, as during relapse episodes following periods of abstinence. Theories of choice suggest that such shifts may be a function of two classes of variables: (1) the direct constraints on access to alcohol, and (2) other activities that are available and the constraints on access to them. Because alcohol is readily available in most natural environments, the main empirical task is to determine how changes in the availability of other activities and the surrounding environmental contexts converge to produce increased preferences for alcohol consumption. The proposed research will address this issue using male alcoholic subjects who received inpatient treatment for their alcohol problems. During Project Years 1 and 2, two method development studies will be conducted to arrive at data gathering procedures and definitional criteria that allow the demarcation of molar environmental contexts (MECs) of temporal extent that entail changes in constraints on individuals' access to valued activities other than alcohol in primary life-health areas (e.g., job, marriage). Then, the MECs and their transitions can be related to post-treatment alcohol consumption patterns of individual alcoholics after discharge. Variables of interest include the measurement of subjects' resources (mainly money), the relationship between work and income, consumption expenditures and how expenditures are allocated among commodity classes (including alcohol), and the classes of life-events that demarcate MECs and MEC transitions. Separate initial studies will develop measures of these variables for use in both pre- and post-treatment assessments. Then, during Project Years 3 and 4, these improved methods will be employed in a 1-year prospective follow-up study of the determinants of relapse in 100 alcoholics after discharge. The main hypothesis being investigated is that relapses after treatment will be more likely to occur if the MECs that were associated with high levels of alcohol consumption during the pre-treatment interval are reinstated during the post-treatment period.

DESCRIPTION (Provided by applicant): Funds are requested for a conference on analyses of substance abuse and addiction that are based on theoretical and empirical developments in economic science and in behavioral economics within psychological science. Although this work has produced significant advances in knowledge regarding substance abuse and addiction, it has not yet had commensurate impact on the field as a whole. One primary goal of the conference is to promote the dissemination of this knowledge. The conference participants will be a mix of established and young, promising basic, clinical, economic, public health, and public policy scientists and scholars who either work in behavioral economics or economics or who are knowledgeable of this work and of its important implications for understanding substance abuse and addiction. The overall objective of the conference is to create a context for open presentation, discussion, and critique of theoretical, empirical, and applied issues concerning economic and behavioral economic perspectives on addiction, which will facilitate progress in the area. The specific aims include (a) the articulation of shared and distinctive elements of the four major theories in this area, (b) the development of empirical interpretations of theoretical concepts that have not yet been empirically evaluated, (c) the identification of issues that may provide empirical evaluations of the relative merits of the different theoretical perspectives, (d) the articulation of the full range of applied implications of this body of work for clinical, public health, and public policy initiatives, and to facilitate the translation of these basic science developments into an applied research agenda, and (e) publishing the conference proceedings in a book that will facilitate progress in this area by dissemination in the scholarly, research, and professional substance abuse and addiction communities. The conference will be held from 3/30/01 to 4/1/01 at the Pickwick Hotel and Conference Center in Birmingham, AL, which is adjacent to the campus of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Preference for short term rewards over long term rewards is a hallmark of drug abuse: Drug abusers over-engage now in short term rewards (drug use) that later lead to long term costs, and they under-engage now in constructive activities that would later lead to long term benefits (positive life health functioning). Behavioral economics provides a framework to study such intertemporal choice dynamics. The basic science of behavioral allocation has identified three intertemporal choice processes that influence whether individuals prefer short term or long term rewards (melioration-maximization, temporal discounting, and reward linking). Investigating the role of these choice dynamics in the development of drug abuse and in changes in drug use over time is the goal of this research. The proposed study is a longitudinal, three-group, case control design. College students will be selected based on their marijuana use: abstinent, incipient use, or abuse (n = 70 [35 women and 35 men], N = 210). Key variables to be measured in laboratory sessions at Time 1 and at Time 2 (18 months later) are drug use and related problems, the choice dynamics, substance-related reinforcement in participants' environments, personality variables, and intelligence. The specific aims are to evaluate empirical relations in four areas to determine if the choice dynamics are viable targets for drug abuse prevention: (1) Drug-use group differences on the choice measures would indicate the relevance of the choice processes to drug abuse. (2) Relations between the choice dynamics at Time 1 and changes in drug use from Time 1 to Time 2 would be strong evidence for targeting the processes in prevention efforts. (3) Normal development involves an increasing preference for long-term rewards, but the rate of that progression may be related to stability or change in drug use, which will be investigated in the proposed study. (4) Empirical relations among the three choice dynamics are not known. Evidence for such relations would suggest that the processes could be coherently addressed in prevention interventions. The proposed participants are in a critical developmental transition that involves establishing patterns of behavioral allocation that will significantly impact their functioning in adult roles. This basic research on intertemporal choice dynamics and drug use and abuse during this developmental period may reveal relations that can inform the development of more effective drug abuse prevention efforts. [unreadable] [unreadable]