Trial reportExperimental and clinical psychopharmacology2022
Future thinking to decrease real-world drinking in alcohol use disorder: Repairing reinforcer pathology in a randomized proof-of-concept trial.
Trial report in Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled 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
- Writing about the future self to shift drinking identity: An experimental investigation.Alcohol (Fayetteville, N.Y.) · 2024Trial
- Trial
- Episodic Future Thinking about Smoking-Related Illness: A Preliminary Investigation of Effects on Delay Discounting, Cigarette Craving, and Cigarette Demand.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Trial
- Alcohol cue-induced heart rate variability and drinking behavior: The role of impulsivity.Addictive behaviors reports · 2026Article
- Episodic Future Thinking as an Intervention for Alcohol Use Disorder: Effects on Delay Discounting and Real-World Alcohol Consumption.Research square · 2026Article
- Rural- and nonrural-specific themes in personalized intervention messages for adults with at-risk alcohol use living in rural areas.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- It will be worth it, in the end: a model of naturalistic intertemporal choice.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Episodic future thinking modulates delay discounting in individuals with problematic substance use: a narrative review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Review
- Diagnostic validity of alcohol demand and monetary delay discounting in relation to alcohol use disorder.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2025Article
- The phenotype of recovery XII: A reinforcer pathology perspective on associations between delay discounting and pain catastrophizing in substance use disorder recovery.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2025Article
- Context-dependent Impulsivity in Substance Use Disorder: A Neuroscience-informed Framework.Current addiction reports · 2025Article
- What's in a cue?: Using natural language processing to quantify content characteristics of episodic future thinking in the context of overweight and obesity.Health psychology and behavioral medicine · 2025Article
- Connectivity Changes Following Episodic Future Thinking in Alcohol Use Disorder.Brain connectivity · 2024Article
- Behavioral therapies targeting reward mechanisms in substance use disorders.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2024Review
- Acceptability and feasibility of a mobile behavioral economic health intervention to reduce alcohol use in adults in rural areas.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2024Article
- Brief online negative affect focused functional imagery training (FIT) improves four-week drinking outcomes in hazardous student drinkers: A pilot randomised controlled trial replication in South Africa.Addictive behaviors reports · 2024Article
- Value-based decision-making predicts alcohol use and related problems in young men.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2023Observational
- Utility of the 5-trial adjusting delay task in screening for high delay discounting rates: A cohort study of individuals reporting harmful alcohol and tobacco use.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2023Article
- Virtual reality intervention effects on future self-continuity and delayed reward preference in substance use disorder recovery: pilot study results.Discover mental health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Reinforcer Pathology theory proposes that expanding the temporal window of reinforcement (i.e., reducing delay discounting) using episodic future thinking (EFT) would decrease alcohol consumption. However, evidence of effectiveness in real-world settings is lacking. Using a randomized proof-of-concept field trial, the current study examined the effect of expanding the temporal window of reinforcement, using remotely delivered EFT, on decreasing real-world alcohol consumption among individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD). Fifty-two individuals (9 females) aged 18-65 years who met the DSM-5 criteria for moderate or severe AUD and aimed to drink in moderation or abstain from drinking completed the study and were included in analysis. EFT significantly (p = .031) reduced alcohol consumption (mean change of consumption pre-post intervention = -2.18 drinks/day) compared to control episodic recent thinking (ERT; mean change of -0.52 drinks/day). Changes in discounting rates pre-post intervention significantly predicted changes in alcohol consumption (coef. = .424, 95% CI [.043-.813], p = .030) even after controlling for age, gender, race, income, education, marital status, and family history of addiction. Overall satisfaction across groups was rated as 3.92 on a 1 to 5-point scale, suggesting that the current remote approach is feasible and acceptable. The current findings were congruent with the theory, Reinforcer Pathology, that EFT expands the temporal window and decreases alcohol consumption, and the remote approach was considered feasible and acceptable. We believe the present study contributes new knowledge with tangible benefits for scientifically understanding and better defining novel interventions that may be clinically deployed to improve treatment outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 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.