Contingency Management Using Deposit Contract to Reduce Drinking
June 18, 2026 updated by: Tara Wright, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
This study will examine the effects of an incentive-based intervention (for reducing alcohol use) that would be sustainable, easily accessible intervention using remote alcohol monitoring and deposit contracts, targeting individuals who would not be reached by more traditional forms of treatment due to barriers such as time constraints, attitudes, and stigma.
Study Overview
Status
Withdrawn
Conditions
Intervention / Treatment
Detailed Description
Deposit contracts are effective at treating a wide variety of problems: smoking cessation, weight loss, and increasing physical activity.
Despite the promise of deposit contracts, few earlier studies targeted problem drinking, since doing so required burdensome frequent monitoring - now overcome by remote alcohol monitoring.
Earlier work relied on self- and collateral reports, breath alcohol concentrations during clinic visits, or an indirect non-specific marker of alcohol use.
Despite these difficulties, earlier studies of deposit contracts were encouraging, with notable increases in: therapy participation; retention ; and abstinence duration compared to previous reports.
Collectively, these studies show the potential of deposit contracts to reduce problem drinking but provide only limited evidence of its effectiveness.
Still, these studies, and our recent success using contingency management with remote alcohol monitoring, provide a compelling rationale for examining whether a deposit contract program might provide a feasible, effective, and accessible way of helping people reduce drinking.
Though there is limited systematic research on deposit contracts, deposit contract programs for various problems are widely available and have proven quite attractive.
For example, a deposit contract weight loss website, has over 887,000 users with $62M in incentives paid.
However, it is unclear if deposit contracts would be acceptable (and therefore feasible) to individuals interested in reducing their problem drinking.
Therefore, we feel that the proposed deposit contract intervention utilizing remote alcohol monitoring could be a widely available and acceptable intervention for problem drinking for three reasons: (1) because of the effectiveness and convenience of our contingency management intervention using remote alcohol monitoring; (2) because of the widespread success of other deposit contract programs like DietBetã; and (3) because the potentially increased attractiveness and effectiveness of an intervention that can return an amount greater than the deposit.
The adoption of a deposit contract intervention plus remote alcohol monitoring will only be accelerated by the "FitBit"-style alcohol monitoring devices being developed by many companies (we are currently independently evaluating one such device).
However, making deposit contracts widely available will need evidence of their effectiveness, which requires large randomized controlled trials.
The purpose of this R21 application is to develop this evidence by demonstrating that deposit contracts with remote alcohol monitoring are feasible and provide evidence of effectiveness needed to design and justify future studies.
Study Type
Interventional
Phase
- Not Applicable
Contacts and Locations
This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.
Study Locations
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Texas
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Denton, Texas, United States, 76210
- University of North Texas
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San Antonio, Texas, United States, 78229
- University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
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Participation Criteria
Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.
Eligibility Criteria
Ages Eligible for Study
- Adult
- Older Adult
Accepts Healthy Volunteers
No
Description
Inclusion Criteria:
- at least 21 years of age,
- report at least 1heavy drinking episode during the last 28 days;
- want to reduce their alcohol use;
- are willing to wear a transdermal alcohol monitor;
- own a smart phone and
- are willing and able to deposit $30, $60, or $100 of their choice.
Exclusion Criteria:
- substance use disorder (except alcohol, nicotine, and/or caffeine);
- significant alcohol withdrawal symptoms (score ≥ 10 on the Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment for Alcohol) or currently in alcohol treatment;
- medical condition that would contraindicate participation (e.g., pregnancy, scheduled surgery);
- presence of a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5) psychiatric disorder with symptoms of psychosis and/or delirium; or
- inability to comprehend informed consent or instructions.
Study Plan
This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.
How is the study designed?
Design Details
- Primary Purpose: Treatment
- Allocation: Randomized
- Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
- Masking: None (Open Label)
Arms and Interventions
Participant Group / Arm |
Intervention / Treatment |
|---|---|
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Active Comparator: Control group
During the 2-week intervention, participants will wear a transdermal alcohol monitor and return to our lab twice more (i.e., Visit 1 on the 8th day and Visit 2 on the 15th day from the study entry) to have their monitoring data downloaded from the webserver and payments (if any) determined.
1/2 of their deposit per week will be added electronically to their debit card regardless of their drinking
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Using a SCRAM-Cam device participants will be monitored for their alcohol use.
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Experimental: Deposit Contract Group
During the 2-week intervention, participants will wear a transdermal alcohol monitor and return to our lab twice more (i.e., Visit 1 on the 8th day and Visit 2 on the 15th day from the study entry) to have their monitoring data downloaded from the webserver and payments (if any) determined.
Payment will be contingent on the absence of heavy drinking episodes during the previous 7 days.
Data from their transdermal alcohol monitor will be automatically processed using previously developed algorithms.
When no heavy drinking episode has occurred (no transdermal alcohol concentrations > 0.02 g/dl), participants will be paid 1/2 of their deposit and receive an electronic "bonus" voucher.
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Using a SCRAM-Cam device participants will be monitored for their alcohol use.
A deposit contract requires individuals to put down money that is earned back contingently upon meeting their goals.
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What is the study measuring?
Primary Outcome Measures
Outcome Measure |
Measure Description |
Time Frame |
|---|---|---|
|
Transdermal Alcohol Content
Time Frame: 4 weeks continuously
|
Measurement produced while wearing Transdermal Alcohol Monitor
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4 weeks continuously
|
|
Number of Monitored days without Heavy drinking
Time Frame: Baseline to 2 weeks
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Number of monitored days without heavy drinking (i.e., a drinking episode of TAC > 0.02 g/dl) as our primary outcome
|
Baseline to 2 weeks
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Collaborators and Investigators
This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.
Investigators
- Principal Investigator: Tara Wright, PhD, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
Publications and helpful links
The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.
General Publications
- Volpp KG, John LK, Troxel AB, Norton L, Fassbender J, Loewenstein G. Financial incentive-based approaches for weight loss: a randomized trial. JAMA. 2008 Dec 10;300(22):2631-7. doi: 10.1001/jama.2008.804.
- Bigelow G, Strickler D, Liebson I, Griffiths R. Maintaining disulfiram ingestion among outpatient alcoholics: a security-deposit contingency contracting procedure. Behav Res Ther. 1976;14(5):378-81. doi: 10.1016/0005-7967(76)90028-0. No abstract available.
- Burns RJ, Rothman AJ. Comparing Types of Financial Incentives to Promote Walking: An Experimental Test. Appl Psychol Health Well Being. 2018 Jul;10(2):193-214. doi: 10.1111/aphw.12126. Epub 2018 Apr 19.
- Dallery J, Raiff BR, Grabinski MJ, Marsch LA. Technology-Based Contingency Management in the Treatment of Substance-Use Disorders. Perspect Behav Sci. 2019 Jul 9;42(3):445-464. doi: 10.1007/s40614-019-00214-1. eCollection 2019 Sep.
- Ersner-Hershfield SM, Connors GJ, Maisto SA. Clinical and experimental utility of refundable deposits. Behav Res Ther. 1981;19(5):455-7. doi: 10.1016/0005-7967(81)90137-6. No abstract available.
- Jarvis BP, Dallery J. Internet-based self-tailored deposit contracts to promote smoking reduction and abstinence. J Appl Behav Anal. 2017 Apr;50(2):189-205. doi: 10.1002/jaba.377. Epub 2017 Feb 17.
- Paxton R. The effects of a deposit contract as a component in a behavioural programme for stopping smoking. Behav Res Ther. 1980;18(1):45-50. doi: 10.1016/0005-7967(80)90068-6. No abstract available.
- Pomerleau O, Pertschuk M, Adkins D, Brady JP. A comparison of behavioral and traditional treatment for middle-income problem drinkers. J Behav Med. 1978 Jun;1(2):187-200. doi: 10.1007/BF00846639.
- White JS, Dow WH, Rungruanghiranya S. Commitment contracts and team incentives: a randomized controlled trial for smoking cessation in Thailand. Am J Prev Med. 2013 Nov;45(5):533-42. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2013.06.020.
Study record dates
These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.
Study Major Dates
Study Start (Actual)
June 10, 2022
Primary Completion (Actual)
May 31, 2025
Study Completion (Actual)
May 31, 2025
Study Registration Dates
First Submitted
April 19, 2023
First Submitted That Met QC Criteria
April 19, 2023
First Posted (Actual)
May 1, 2023
Study Record Updates
Last Update Posted (Actual)
June 23, 2026
Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria
June 18, 2026
Last Verified
June 1, 2026
More Information
Terms related to this study
Additional Relevant MeSH Terms
Other Study ID Numbers
- 20210632HU
- R21AA029659-03 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)
Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)
Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?
YES
IPD Plan Description
Since this is a research study, the investigators will share only de-identified where possible with:
- The sponsor of the study (the National Institutes of Health) and representatives of the sponsor assisting with the research
- The members of the local research team
- The Institutional Review Board and the Compliance Office of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and other groups that oversee how research studies are carried out.
- The Research offices at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
IPD Sharing Time Frame
The consent form will be shared on this site within 60 days of the last participant's last study visit to collect data.
The study protocol and statistical analysis plan will be shared on this site when results are reported after the study is completed.
IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type
- STUDY_PROTOCOL
- SAP
- ICF
Drug and device information, study documents
Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product
No
Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product
No
This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.