Affect Therapeutics Aims to Curb Stimulant Addiction: Treatment Magazine

Jason Langendorf writes in Treatment Magazine about Affect’s all-digital treatment program and its roots in contingency management and compulsion loops to activate the brain’s rewards systems.

Affect Therapeutics is an integrated recovery program accessed through a proprietary smartphone app, allowing clients to visit counselors and doctors via secure video conference. The user takes on daily challenges, receives assistance from an appointment manager and even manages drug testing through the app. And yes: Cash incentives for avoiding stimulant use are part of the mix.

Muhlner says Affect’s design drew some of its inspiration from a variety of sources that aren’t typically associated with the addiction space, including fitness progress tracking, game design and e-commerce.

“All of these different disciplines tend to drive off of a concept that is known as compulsion loops,” she says. “Which is, we want to try to get someone to demonstrate a behavior and to do that on various temporal scales.”

Beyond the modality of choice, the Affect Therapeutics delivery system is meant to reduce the friction of access to care and provide discretion for those clients who seek it.

“It’s no fun to show up in a crappy basketball gym and sit on a folding chair, right?” says Muhlner. “The opportunity to be in a comfortable and safe place is something our patients talk about as being something they appreciate a great deal.”

Read the full article at Treatment Magazine