Prize contingency management for smoking cessation: a randomized trial.

Background: Adjunctive behavioral smoking cessation treatments have the potential to improve outcomes beyond standard care. The present study had two aims: (1) compare standard care (SC) for smoking (four weeks of brief counseling and monitoring) to SC plus prize-based contingency management (CM), involving the chance to earn prizes on days with demonstrated smoking abstinence (carbon monoxide (CO) ≤6 ppm); and (2) compare the relative efficacy of two prize reinforcement schedules-one a traditional CM schedule, and the second an early enhanced CM schedule providing greater reinforcement magnitude in the initial week of treatment but equal overall reinforcement.

Methods: Participants (N=81 nicotine-dependent cigarette smokers) were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions.

Results: Prize CM resulted in significant reductions in cigarette smoking relative to SC. These reductions were not apparent at follow-up. We found no meaningful differences between the traditional and enhanced CM conditions.

Conclusions: Our findings reveal that prize CM leads to significant reductions in smoking during treatment relative to a control intervention, but the benefits did not extend long-term.