TY - JOUR
T1 - The Blinded-Dose Purchase Task
T2 - assessing hypothetical demand based on cocaine, methamphetamine, and alcohol administration
AU - Berry, Meredith S.
AU - Naudé, Gideon P.
AU - Johnson, Patrick S.
AU - Johnson, Matthew W.
N1 - Funding Information:
We gratefully acknowledge that this research was supported in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) grants R21DA032717 (MWJ), R01DA032363 (MWJ), and R01DA035277 (MWJ). Support for MSB, GPN, and PSJ was provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse Grant T32DA007209. MSB gratefully acknowledges that her time was also supported in part by NIDA grant K01DA052673.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).
PY - 2023/4
Y1 - 2023/4
N2 - Rationale: Behavioral economic drug purchase tasks quantify the reinforcing value of a drug (i.e., demand). Although widely used to assess demand, drug expectancies are rarely accounted for and may introduce variability across participants given diverse drug experiences. Objectives: Three experiments validated and extended previous hypothetical purchase tasks by using blinded drug dose as a reinforcing stimulus, and determined hypothetical demand for experienced effects while controlling for drug expectancies. Methods: Across three double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subject experiments, cocaine (0, 125, 250 mg/70 kg; n=12), methamphetamine (0, 20, 40 mg; n=19), and alcohol (0, 1 g/kg alcohol; n=25) were administered and demand was assessed using the Blinded-Dose Purchase Task. Participants answered questions regarding simulated purchasing of the blinded drug dose across increasing prices. Demand metrics, subjective effects, and self-reported real-world monetary spending on drugs were evaluated. Results: Data were well modeled by the demand curve function, with significantly higher intensity (purchasing at low prices) for active drug doses compared to placebo for all experiments. Unit-price analyses revealed more persistent consumption across prices (lower α) in the higher compared to lower active dose condition for methamphetamine (a similar non-significant finding emerged for cocaine). Significant associations between demand metrics, peak subjective effects, and real-world spending on drugs also emerged across all experiments. Conclusions: Orderly demand curve data revealed differences across drug and placebo conditions, and relations to real-world measures of drug spending, and subjective effects. Unit-price analyses enabled parsimonious comparisons across doses. Results lend credence to the validity of the Blinded-Dose Purchase Task, which allows for control of drug expectancies.
AB - Rationale: Behavioral economic drug purchase tasks quantify the reinforcing value of a drug (i.e., demand). Although widely used to assess demand, drug expectancies are rarely accounted for and may introduce variability across participants given diverse drug experiences. Objectives: Three experiments validated and extended previous hypothetical purchase tasks by using blinded drug dose as a reinforcing stimulus, and determined hypothetical demand for experienced effects while controlling for drug expectancies. Methods: Across three double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subject experiments, cocaine (0, 125, 250 mg/70 kg; n=12), methamphetamine (0, 20, 40 mg; n=19), and alcohol (0, 1 g/kg alcohol; n=25) were administered and demand was assessed using the Blinded-Dose Purchase Task. Participants answered questions regarding simulated purchasing of the blinded drug dose across increasing prices. Demand metrics, subjective effects, and self-reported real-world monetary spending on drugs were evaluated. Results: Data were well modeled by the demand curve function, with significantly higher intensity (purchasing at low prices) for active drug doses compared to placebo for all experiments. Unit-price analyses revealed more persistent consumption across prices (lower α) in the higher compared to lower active dose condition for methamphetamine (a similar non-significant finding emerged for cocaine). Significant associations between demand metrics, peak subjective effects, and real-world spending on drugs also emerged across all experiments. Conclusions: Orderly demand curve data revealed differences across drug and placebo conditions, and relations to real-world measures of drug spending, and subjective effects. Unit-price analyses enabled parsimonious comparisons across doses. Results lend credence to the validity of the Blinded-Dose Purchase Task, which allows for control of drug expectancies.
KW - Abuse liability
KW - Alcohol
KW - Behavioral economics
KW - Blinded-Dose Purchase Task
KW - Cocaine
KW - Demand curve
KW - Drug use
KW - Human
KW - Methamphetamine
KW - Purchase task
KW - Unit price
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U2 - 10.1007/s00213-023-06334-6
DO - 10.1007/s00213-023-06334-6
M3 - Article
C2 - 36869212
AN - SCOPUS:85149203013
SN - 0033-3158
VL - 240
SP - 921
EP - 933
JO - Psychopharmacology
JF - Psychopharmacology
IS - 4
ER -