Validation of a behavioral economic purchase task for assessing drug abuse liability

Behavioral economic purchase tasks quantify drug demand (i.e. reinforcing value of a drug) and have been used extensively to assess the value of various drugs among current users. However, purchase tasks have been rarely used with unfamiliar drugs to address a compound's abuse liability, and the current study sought to validate the paradigm in this capacity. Using a double-blind placebo-controlled within-subjects drug challenge design, the …