Considerations for remote delivery of behavioral economic interventions for substance use disorder during COVID-19 and beyond

The response to the COVID-19 crisis has created direct pressure on health care providers to deliver virtual care, and has created the opportunity to develop innovations in remote treatment for people with substance use disorders. Remote treatments provide an intervention delivery framework that capitalizes on technological innovations in remote monitoring of behaviors and can efficiently use information collected from people and their environment to provide personalized treatments as needed. Interventions informed by behavioral economic theories can help to harness the largely untapped potential of virtual care in substance use treatment. Behavioral economic treatments, such as contingency management, the substance-free activity session, and episodic future thinking, are positioned to leverage remote monitoring of substance use and to use personalized medicine frameworks to deliver remote interventions in the COVID-19 era and beyond.
Highlights • With increased remote care, there is an opportunity for virtual treatment development. • Treatments can capitalize on remote technology to increase effectiveness. • Behavioral economic interventions are well positioned to fill this need. • Remote behavioral economic interventions can add to current treatments.