ArticleExperimental and clinical psychopharmacology2021
Behavioral economics of substance use: Understanding and reducing harmful use during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 45 citations in OpenAlex.
- Brain Structural Abnormalities in Addiction Disorders: Transdiagnostic Meta-Analyses.Human brain mapping · 2026Pooled it
- COVID-19 risk, course and outcome in people with mental disorders: a systematic review and meta-analyses.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2023Pooled it
- Changes in alcohol use during COVID-19 and associations with contextual and individual difference variables: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2022Pooled it
- Behavioral Impaired Control over Alcohol: Comparing Self-Medication and Behavioral Economic Models with the Interacting Effects of Acute Stress, Chronic Stress with Physical Neglect History, and Sex Assigned at Birth.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Investigating the association between health vulnerabilities and police enforcement during the Covid-19 pandemic: A novel study using linked administrative data in Scotland.Journal of criminology · 2025Article
- Restrictive and permissive alcohol policies during the COVID-19 pandemic and their association with alcohol consumption in the United States.The International journal on drug policy · 2025Article
- Severe alcohol use and COVID-19: implications for physical and mental health.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Review
- Sources of Environmental Reinforcement and Engagement in Health Risk Behaviors Among a General Population Sample of US Adults.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Article
- Differential change in alcohol consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic: the role of loneliness, socialization, and mental well-being.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Loss Aversion and Current, Former, and Never-Smoking Status.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2023Article
- When asking 'are you stressed?' is not enough: Hair cortisol, subjective stress, and alcohol use during the first year of the pandemic.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2023Article
- Matching, behavioral economics, and teleological behaviorism: Final cause analysis of substance use and health behavior.Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior · 2023Article
- Profiles of Ecosystemic Resilience and Risk: American Indian Adolescent Substance Use during the First Year of the COVID-19 Crisis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Alcohol use trajectories among U.S. adults during the first 42 weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2022Article
- Employment, Economic, and Sociodemographic Factors Associated with Changes in Smoking and Drinking Behaviors during the COVID-19 Pandemic in South Korea.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Alcohol use during COVID-19 in adults with severe untreated AUD.Alcoholism treatment quarterly · 2022Article
- Changes in Cannabis Consumption Among College Students During COVID-19.Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs · 2022Article
- Behavioral economic methods to inform infectious disease response: Prevention, testing, and vaccination in the COVID-19 pandemic.PloS one · 2022Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Behavioral economic research demonstrates that alcohol and drug consumption is (a) an inverse function of constraints on access to the substance and (b) a direct function of constraints on access to alternative rewards. Physical distancing interventions and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in unprecedented reductions in many of the constraints on substance use and in critical evolutionarily salient sources of alternative reward, such as social interaction, physical activity, leisure activities and hobbies, and academic and occupational pursuits. Thus, behavioral economics suggests that the pandemic and necessary public health response have created a "perfect storm" for exacerbation of individual-level and population-level substance use problems and also points to multilevel intervention strategies. We summarize this perspective and research by highlighting 3 critical behavioral processes that will influence drug and alcohol consumption. First, the sudden absence of many effective constraints on substance use (work, school, community, or service obligations) will reduce the actual and perceived cost of use. Second, physical distancing measures will reduce the availability, and increase the cost, of many rewarding substance-free activities and commodities. Third, increased uncertainty around current and future events increases discounting of delayed rewards. These effects will be especially pernicious among populations with existing health disparities. Next, we outline interventions suggested by behavioral economics to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on substance use that are aimed at increasing perceived costs of use; increasing access to substance-free activities, including treatment; and lengthening the timeframe for behavioral allocation and altering environmental contexts to promote healthy choices. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
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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.