Is exposure to an effective contingency management intervention associated with more positive provider beliefs?

This is the Results Article for CTN-0007-A-1.

This CTN platform study empirically examined opinions of treatment providers regarding contingency management (CM) programs while controlling for experience with a specific efficacious CM program. In addition to empirically describing provider opinions, the researchers examined whether the opinions of providers at the sites that implemented the CM program were more positive than those of matched providers at sites that did not implement it. Participants from 7 CM treatment sites (n=76) and 7 matched non-participating sites (n=69) within the same nodes of the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN) completed the Provider Survey of Incentives (PSI), which assesses positive and negative beliefs about incentive programs. An intent-to-treat analysis found no differences in the PSI summary scores of providers in CM programs versus matched sites, but correcting for experience with tangible incentives showed significant differences, with providers from CM sites reporting more positive opinions that those from matched sites. Some differences were found in opinions regarding costs of incentives, and these generally indicated that participants from CM sites were more likely to see the costs as worthwhile. The results from the study suggest that exposing community treatment providers to incentive programs may itself be an effective strategy in prompting the dissemination of this evidence-based practice, one of the goals of NIDA’s CTN.

Related protocols: CTN-0006, CTN-0007, CTN-0007-A-1