Contingency management is based upon principles of behavior modification. It involves providing positive reinforcement (in the form of clinic privileges, vouchers or payment) when clients achieve specified behaviours or treatment goals. There are four key tenets which are common to all evidence-based models of contingency management:

There is evidence from the US that contingency management can be effective in reducing crack and cocaine use among opiatedependent patients receiving opiate substitution therapy. This study tried to find out whether contingency management (or variants of it) were being applied in England and what clinicians thought about its potential. We also described the approach and the experience of two services that were using contingency management principle.