A behavioral economic analysis of the relative persistence of behavior: comment on Meisch (2000)

This commentary examines and reinterprets the concept of relative persistence in drug self-administration studies, described by R. A. Meisch (2000), in behavioral economic terms. Over the past several years, investigators in the behavioral sciences have successfully applied consumer demand theory to the study of drug abuse and addiction. The economic concept of demand elasticity (i.e., the changes in the amount of a commodity demanded as a function of changes in price) and the concept of unit price are described in detail, and this commentary shows these concepts provide an alternative interpretation to the relative persistence of behavior. The application of the behavioral economic approach to understanding abuse potential of putative drugs of abuse, in development of medications for drug addiction and in characterizing the transition from drug use to drug addiction, is discussed.