This study is a critically important first-of-its-kind investigation of the potential research utility of using contingency management to examine long-term changes in cannabis use with six months of abstinence. These pilot data will inform a later trial which will focus on testing the longitudinal relationships between adolescent cognition and cannabis use, questions of high and growing public health significance given adolescents' increased access to cannabis with legalization.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
6
Six months of cannabis abstinence will be incentivized using a standard contingency management approach involving an escalating schedule of payment for abstinence and attendance.
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Continuous Abstinence Via Progressive Declines in Urine THCCOOH
Cannabis abstinence will be indexed by progressively decreasing quantitative levels (ng/mL) of 11-nor-delta-9-THC-9-carboxylic acid (THCCOOH), the primary cannabis metabolite, in urine. Residual cannabinoid excretion will be differentiated from new cannabis exposure using a statistical model developed by Schwilke and colleagues (2011). This model was empirically derived from urine CN-THCCOOH concentration ratios of consecutively collected specimen pairs (current specimen/prior specimen). This model takes into account the time between collection of specimens, which enhances the accuracy of prediction of new cannabis use. This formula yields an expected CN-THCCOOH ratio associated with specimen pairs during abstinence, and observed ratios that exceed this expected value are interpreted as new cannabis use.
Time frame: Six months
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