MST significantly reduces adolescent drug use during treatment and for at least 6 months after treatment. The behavioral component concurrently provides support and reinforcement of coping skills, yielding better long-term outcomes. Through behavioral skills training, patients learn to avoid high-risk situations for smoking relapse early on and later to plan strategies to cope with such situations.
Patients practice skills in treatment, social, and work settings.
They learn other coping techniques, such as cigarette refusal skills, assertiveness, and time management. The combined treatment is based on the rationale that behavioral and pharmacological treatments operate by different yet complementary mechanisms that produce potentially additive effects. T.B. Two studies of the clinical effectiveness of the nicotine patch with different counseling treatments. American Psychiatric Association, 1996. Plus Vouchers is an intensive 24-week outpatient therapy for treatment of cocaine addiction.