SynthesisAddiction (Abingdon, England)2017
Steep delay discounting and addictive behavior: a meta-analysis of continuous associations.
Synthesis in Addiction (Abingdon, England), 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 4 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 312 papers, 10 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Improving Delay Discounting to Decrease Harsh Parenting Among Parents Receiving Substance Use Treatment in Low Income Community
Train Your Brain: A Pilot Project to Improve Memory and Decision Making to Improve Outcomes Among Youth
Peer Delivered Episodic Future Thinking to Improve MOUD Treatment Engagement Among Returning Citizens - A Randomized Controlled Trial
Structural Racism, Neurocognition in Reward Related Decision Making and Substance Use Risk
Who cites it
312 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pooled it
- A systematic review of delay discounting among workers: framing effects, resource availability, and health.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Parallel addictions: understanding the psychological and neurobehavioral damage of gaming and alcohol use in adolescents and young adults.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Delay discounting and anxiety: a systematic review on current evidence for clinical and non-clinical population.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Pooled it
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of test-retest reliability and stability of delay and probability discounting.Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior · 2024Pooled it
- Imagining the future can shape the present: A systematic review of the impact of episodic future thinking on substance use outcomes.Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2024Pooled it
- Delay discounting and substance use treatment outcomes: A systematic review focused on treatment outcomes and discounting methodology.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2023Pooled it
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of delay discounting and cannabis use.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2021Pooled it
- Sexual discounting: A systematic review of discounting processes and sexual behavior.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2021Pooled it
- The Etiologic, Theory-Based, Ontogenetic Hierarchical Framework of Alcohol Use Disorder: A Translational Systematic Review of Reviews.Psychological bulletin · 2021Pooled it
- Engagement in alcohol-free activities, community-level economic disadvantage, and heavy drinking following alcohol treatment.Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior · 2026Trial
- Problem Gambling and its Relation to Delayed Reward Discounting: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of gambling studies · 2026Trial
- Initial evaluation of domain-specific episodic future thinking on delay discounting and cannabis use.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2022Trial
- Future thinking to decrease real-world drinking in alcohol use disorder: Repairing reinforcer pathology in a randomized proof-of-concept trial.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2022Trial
- Behavioral economic analysis of topiramate pharmacotherapy for alcohol: a placebo-controlled investigation of effects on alcohol reinforcing value and delayed reward discounting.Psychopharmacology · 2022Trial
- A story to tell: the role of narratives in reducing delay discounting for people who strongly discount the future.Memory (Hove, England) · 2021Trial
- The effects of prelimbic inhibition on time-based intervention and impulsive choice.Behavioural brain research · 2027Article
- Less systematic decision-making during delay discounting, but not discounting rate, is robustly linked to psychopathology.Journal of psychopathology and clinical science · 2026Article
- Dissociation of decision-making from escalated drug intake within a long-access model.Behavioural brain research · 2026Article
- Thalamo-cortical white matter connectivity-defined thalamic subarea volumes predict individual delay discounting.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
252 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
aimsTo synthesize continuous associations between delayed reward discounting (DRD) and both addiction severity and quantity-frequency (QF); to examine moderators of these relationships; and to investigate publication bias.
methodsMeta-analysis of published studies examining continuous associations between DRD and addictive behaviors. Published, peer-reviewed studies on addictive behaviors (alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, stimulants, opiates and gambling) were identified via PubMed, MEDLINE and PsycInfo. Studies were restricted to DRD measures of monetary gains. Random-effects meta-analysis was conducted using Pearson's r as the effect size. Publication bias was evaluated using fail-safe N, Begg-Mazumdar and Egger's tests, meta-regression of publication year and effect size and imputation of missing studies.
resultsThe primary meta-analysis revealed a small magnitude effect size that was highly significant (r = 0.14, P < 10
conclusionsDelayed reward discounting is associated robustly with continuous measures of addiction severity and quantity-frequency. This relation is generally robust across type of addictive behavior and delayed reward discounting assessment modality.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.