Quantification of reinforcing effectiveness: comment on Meisch (2000)

Area of Science:

• Behavioral science
• Psychopharmacology
• Drug addiction research

Background:

• Quantifying the reinforcing effectiveness of drugs is crucial for understanding substance use.
• Previous methods may not fully capture the persistence of drug use in humans.
• Behavioral economics offers tools to analyze demand for substances.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and evaluate an innovative method for quantifying the reinforcing effectiveness of drugs and other substances.
• To assess the method's sensitivity to factors influencing drug self-administration.
• To compare this method with behavioral economic analyses of demand.

Main Methods:

• Systematic variation of reinforcer magnitude and schedule size to measure drug reinforcing effectiveness.
• Measuring persistence ratios based on responding or consumption.
• Plotting responding as a function of unit price (responses/milligram) to determine peak persistence.

Main Results:

• The method models the persistence of drug use in humans.
• Persistence ratios are consistent whether responding or consumption is measured.
• The measure is sensitive to factors affecting drug self-administration.
• Abbreviated analysis varying only reinforcer magnitude aligns with behavioral economic demand analysis.

Conclusions:

• Meisch's method provides a sensitive measure of drug reinforcing effectiveness.
• The method's core feature involves systematic variation of reinforcer magnitude and schedule size.
• Further research is needed to compare this method with other measures of reinforcing effectiveness.