The drug purity discounting task: Ecstasy use likelihood is reduced by probabilistic impurity according to harmfulness of adulterants.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Ecstasy typically contains adulterants in addition to, or in lieu of, MDMA which may pose a greater risk to users than MDMA itself. The current study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of adulterant-related informational prompts in reducing Ecstasy use using a novel probability discounting task.

Methods

An online sample of past-month Ecstasy users (N = 278) were randomized to one of four different framing prompt conditions: no prompt; a prompt describing MDMA's effects; a prompt describing adulterants as inert "filler"; or a prompt describing adulterants as pharmacologically-active, potentially-harmful compounds. Each prompt contained general, potential public-health information that was not specifically related to subsequent behavioral tasks. All participants th

SUBMITTER: Dolan SB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7156028 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature