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Updated: Sep 5, 2025

The Motivation for Alcohol Reward: Predictors of Progressive-Ratio Intravenous Alcohol Self-Administration in Humans
Published on: April 28, 2022
Bidirectional prospective associations between behavioral economic indicators and drinking patterns during alcohol
JeeWon Cheong1, Jillian M Rung1, Jalie A Tucker1
1Department of Health Education and Behavior.
Objectives:
Behavioral economic (BE) theory posits that harmful alcohol use is a joint product of elevated alcohol demand and preference for immediate over delayed rewards. Despite cross-sectional research support, whether expected bidirectional relations exist between BE indicators and drinking during recovery attempts is unknown. Therefore, this prospective research investigated quarter-by-quarter cross-lagged associations between BE simulation tasks and drinking following a natural recovery attempt. Higher demand and discounting in a given quarter should predict subsequent drinking. Conversely, drinking in a given quarter should predict subsequent higher demand and discounting.
Method:
Community-dwelling problem drinkers were enrolled shortly after stopping heavy drinking without treatment (N = 191). Drinking practices, problems, delay discounting, and alcohol demand (intensity, Omax, Pmax, elasticity) were assessed at baseline and 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month follow-ups. Longitudinal cross-lagged models related each BE indicator in the previous quarter to drinking status in the next quarter, and vice versa.
Results:
Higher demand intensity (consumption when drinks are free) at Quarter 1 distinguished participants who drank heavily in Quarter 2 from those who abstained. In turn, heavy drinking participants in Quarter 2 had higher intensity at Quarter 3 than abstainers and moderate drinkers in Quarter 2, and higher intensity at Quarter 3 distinguished heavy drinkers in Quarter 4 from moderate drinkers (ps < .05). Hypothesized associations for other BE indices were inconsistent or partially supported.
Conclusions:
Alcohol purchase task metrics showed some hypothesized prospective associations with drinking during a natural recovery attempt, which supports their ecological validity as relapse risk indicators. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
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