Jared P. Dempsey

Although common, the use of cash incentives to compensate drug‐addicted participants is controversial. This is particularly true given concerns that cash incentives might precipitate relapse, as is commonly believed. The following investigation examined whether cash versus money order compensation differentially influenced drug use among 34 non‐treatment‐seeking, cocaine‐dependent individuals. Consistent with past evidence, results did not suggest that form of compensation was associated with likelihood of continued cocaine use or dollar amount of cocaine consumed after participation. Findings do not support commonly held concerns that cash incentives increase the risk of relapse following research participation.

Smokers report pleasant reactions to viewing cigarettes, suggesting that smoking cues may be appetitive in nature. Two studies have investigated this hypothesis through physiological assessment. The first study found that smoking cues were physiologically appetitive in nature, with dampened startle response to smoking pictures in comparison to neutral pictures. The second found that smoking pictures did not modulate the startle response, suggesting such cues may not be physiologically appetitive. The goal of the present study was to further investigate how participants’ motivation to quit smoking might modulate responses to smoking cues. Twenty-two nicotine-dependent smokers viewed standardized pleasant, unpleasant, neutral, and smoking pictures. Eleven of the subjects reported no intent to quit (precontemplators) and 11 reported planning to quit within the next 6 months (contemplators). Acoustic startle probes were randomly administered while subjects viewed the pictures, and eyeblink startle magnitude was measured with electromyography (EMG). As a whole, participants exhibited dampened startle responses during smoking pictures, relative to unpleasant pictures. Precontemplators showed robust startle inhibition to smoking pictures, in comparison to both neutral and unpleasant pictures. Contemplators, however, showed blunted unpleasant picture augmentation and a lack of startle inhibition for pleasant pictures. These findings are consistent with the idea that smoking pictures are appetitive in nature. Furthermore, they suggest that smokers at a later stage of change may exhibit a lesser response.