Moving toward a "third generation" of contingency management studies in the abuse treatment field: comment on Silverman et al. (2001)

The power of positively reinforced contingency management procedures has been definitively proven in the drug abuse field-even among the most severely affected clients. This study by K. Silverman, D. Svikis, E. Robles, M. L. Stitzer, and G. E. Bigelow (2001) and other studies like it have clearly moved the contingency management work out of controlled, contrived settings and into the real world. Suggestions are offered for moving the next generation of studies toward less complicated populations and using more robust reinforcements within the constraints of contemporary financial and administrative boundaries.