Association for Behavior Analysis International

Behavioral economic demand is considered an increasingly important framework for abuse liability assessment, and is used to characterize reinforcer consumption as a function of price. In this symposium, speakers will present recent experimental findings that examine demand for licit and illicit drugs, as well as indoor tanning. Meredith Berry will present demand data (and relations to clinically relevant variables) from a novel drug purchasing task administered across three separate double-blind drug administration studies: cocaine, methamphetamine, and alcohol. Amel Becirevic will present recent findings suggesting that exposure to tanning-related cues and paraphernalia significantly increase markers of craving and behavioral economic demand for tanning. Matthew Johnson will present demand data showing that e-cigarettes may serve as a substitute for tobacco cigarettes, and may be a superior substitute for smoking compared to nicotine gum. Jeffrey Stein will present behavioral economic demand data comparing ventilated versus unventilated cigarettes, showing that when both types of cigarettes are available at equivalent unit prices, clear preference for ventilated cigarettes emerges. As discussant, Gregory Madden will integrate these presentations. Data presented in this symposium suggest that behavioral economic demand offers a multi-dimensional assessment of reinforcement, providing insights into aspects of abuse liability and reinforcer pathologies.

Excessive indoor tanning is a behavioral excess mimicking behavioral addiction characteristics associated with other addiction-related disorders such as drug use and gambling. Dense literature in the addiction sciences suggests that cue-reactivity is a behavioral marker of conditioned cravings and behavioral economic demand for substances of abuse. Unlike other commodities of abuse, there are very few regulations on the prevalence of tanning-related advertisements and cues in public settings. Our study examined the extent to which indoor tanners exhibited cue-reactivity in a study translated from those using cigarette and alcohol cue-reactivity preparations. Findings suggest that tanning-related cues and paraphernalia significantly increased markers of craving and behavior economic demand for tanning using a within-subject comparison in 23 college-aged indoor tanners. These tanning cue-reactivity findings provide novel insights into the role of tanning-related messages and visual cues in tanning disorders; such findings also contribute to a growing empirical body of support for tanning as a behavioral addiction. Notably, these cue-reactivity findings suggest that tanning disorder may be a function of both trait and state influences.

Public health impact of e-cigarettes may depend on their substitutability for tobacco cigarettes. Dual users of e-cigarettes and tobacco cigarettes (N=400) completed purchasing tasks in which they specified daily use levels under various hypothetical conditions that varied the availability and price of e-cigarettes, tobacco cigarettes, and nicotine gum (for those with nicotine gum experience). When either e-cigarettes or tobacco puffs were the only available commodity, as puff price increased, purchasing of the commodity decreased, revealing similar reinforcement profiles. When available concurrently, as the price of tobacco puffs increased, purchasing of tobacco puffs decreased, and purchasing of fixed-price e-cigarette puffs increased, indicating that e-cigarettes met one definition of behavioral economic substitution. Concurrent availability of e-cigarette puffs decreased purchasing of tobacco puffs across all unit prices of tobacco puffs, showing that e-cigarettes satisfied another definition of behavioral economic substitutability. Moreover, e-cigarette puff availability decreased tobacco puff purchasing significantly more so than nicotine gum availability. E-cigarettes may serve as a substitute for tobacco cigarettes, and may be a superior substitute for smoking compared to nicotine gum. These data indicate that e-cigarettes may serve a powerful role as smoking cessation or reduction aids.