Differential discounting of past and future gains and losses in individuals in recovery from substance use disorder.

Abstract

Individuals with substance use disorder (SUD) show consistently higher delay discounting (DD) rates than controls for both future and past outcomes, as well as for gains and losses. However, differences in these DD effects (e.g., tense and sign) among individuals in SUD recovery have yet to be explored. Therefore, the goal of the present study was to (a) investigate differences in discounting of past and future gains and losses among individuals in SUD recovery and (b) examine differences in these DD effects between individuals in different stages of remission (i.e., not in remission, in early remission, or in sustained remission). Our results indicate that individuals in recovery discount past and future gains, but not losses, symmetrically. Additionally, individuals in recovery discount gains more than losses (i.e., sign effect) for the future but not for the past. Finally, those in sustained remission showed significantly lower DD rates than those not in remission, regardless of the DD task. Thus, other discounting tasks might provide a similarly accurate measure of DD and can be employed to assess differences in discounting between those in remission and those not in remission. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).