Behavioral Economic Demand for Alcohol and Cigarettes in Heavy Drinking Smokers: Evidence of Asymmetric Cross-commodity Reinforcing Value

Introduction Previous studies have highlighted a strong bidirectional relationship between cigarette and alcohol consumption. To advance our understanding of this relationship the present study uses a behavioral economic approach in a community sample (N = 383) of nontreatment seeking heavy drinking smokers. Aims and Methods The aims were to examine same-substance and cross-substance relationships between alcohol and cigarette use, and latent factors of demand. A community sample of nontreatment seeking heavy drinking smokers completed an in-person assessment battery including measures of alcohol and tobacco use as well as the Cigarette Purchase Task and the Alcohol Purchase Task. Latent factors of demand were derived from these hypothetical purchase tasks. Results Results revealed a positive correlation between paired alcohol and cigarette demand indices (eg, correlation between alcohol intensity and cigarette intensity) (rs = 0.18–0.46, p ≤ .003). Over and above alcohol factors, cigarette use variables (eg, Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence and cigarettes per smoking day) significantly predicted an additional 4.5% (p < .01) of the variance in Persistence values but not Amplitude values for alcohol. Over and above cigarette factors, alcohol use variables predicted cigarette Persistence values (ΔR2 = .013, p = .05), however, did not predict Amplitude values. Conclusions These results advance our understanding of the overlap between cigarette and alcohol by demonstrating that involvement with one substance was associated with demand for the other substance. This asymmetric profile—from smoking to alcohol demand, but not vice versa—suggests that it is not simply tapping into a generally higher reward sensitivity and warrants further investigation. Implications To our knowledge, no study to date has examined alcohol and cigarette demand, via hypothetical purchase tasks, in a clinical sample of heavy drinking smokers. This study demonstrates that behavioral economic indices may be sensitive to cross-substance relationships and specifically that such relationships are asymmetrically stronger for smoking variables affecting alcohol demand, not the other way around.

Concurrent validity of the alcohol purchase task in relation to alcohol involvement: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

IntroductionAlcohol demand, as measured by an alcohol purchase task (APT), provides a multidimensional assessment of the relative reinforcing efficacy of alcohol. The objective of this meta-analysis is to critically appraise the existing literature on the concurrent validity of the APT by meta-analysing the cross-sectional relationships between indices of the APT (ie, breakpoint, Omax, Pmax, elasticity and intensity) and alcohol-related measures. It also aims to examine methodological procedures used to obtain APT indices and individual variables as potential moderators on the assessed estimations.Methods and analysisA comprehensive literature search conducted from inception to April 2020 will be conducted in the PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science and Scopus databases. Two authors will independently screen and extract data from articles using a predefined protocol search and extraction forms. Disagreements will be resolved through discussion with two additional reviewers. All results will be tabulated, and a random-effect meta-analysis will be conducted. Participants’ sex, number of prices and APT methodological procedures will be examined as potential moderators on the observed effect sizes.Ethics and disseminationResults of this meta-analysis will characterise the concurrent validity of the APT in the existing literature. Further, the results are anticipated to provide evidence on which index (or indices) is most robustly associated with alcohol use and severity. Ethics approval was not required for this study and the results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42019137512