Early abstinence in cocaine pharmacotherapy trials predicts successful treatment outcomes

There is a robust relationship between early and later abstinence in smoking cessation, but that relationship has not been explored among other substances of abuse. To assess whether early abstinence during treatment, as opposed to baseline abstinence, predicted later abstinence among cocaine-dependent patients, data from two randomized double-blind controlled clinical pharmacotherapy trials were analyzed. Similar to the findings in the smoking cessation literature, results indicate that abstinence in the first 2 weeks of pharmacotherapy predicted later in-trial abstinence. This finding has implications both for treatment research and for clinical practice, suggesting that patients who do not respond early in treatment may need a more intensive intervention.