Innovative New App Actually Pays Alcoholics $5 a Day Not to Drink

A clever web application aims to replace the little hit your brain’s reward system receives from drugs or alcohol with a daily five-dollar incentive in exchange for using it.

According to the Boston Globe, which published an article on company DynamiCare recently, researchers have long recognized that little incentives might work as fast satisfaction to disrupt dependent behavior, particularly if the gift cards or vouchers for activities that foster good behaviors. Digital therapeutics is the term used to describe the use of apps, games, and other technological tools to aid in the treatment of conditions such as addictions. This is super clever, we need to work with the brains reward centers, instead of fighting it, like we have been.

“All the drugs of abuse disrupt the brain reward center, which is deeper in the brain,” DynamiCare’s David Gastfriend, states to the Globe. “When we just put people in detox and then send them to counseling, we’re saying, ‘Use your thinking brain to try and overcome your chemical drive center.’ The problem is, behavior works in the opposite direction.”

The reward technique, also known as contingency management therapy, was found to be unpopular with academics, physicians, and the general public, according to a study on addiction conducted in 2011. Gasfriend said in 2019 that the app prohibits users from spending money on particular things or in certain circumstances, and that the program also tracks other habits like as attendance at treatment appointments. The software may also be used in conjunction with Bluetooth breathalyzers to ensure that someone is indeed sober.

To be sure, innovative methods of therapy are always welcome in a nation where there is an ongoing opioid crisis. Certain 12-step programs may be beneficial to persons who are struggling with drug and alcohol misuse, whilst others may benefit from religious or community support groups, or even medicine. Put another ally in your fight against alcoholism will only be beneficial. We give this new technology a thumbs up.