Cocaine Effects without Cocaine: Increasing Happiness with Self-Regulation Therapy in a Single Session

Abstract

The psychological reproduction of cocaine’s ability to increase happiness was studied. The first part of this study consisted of building and validating an instrument to measure the stable and transient aspects of happiness via the 10-item Happiness Trait–State Scale (10 HTSS) in a sample of volunteers (N = 128). In the second part, Self-Regulation Therapy (SRT, a procedure based on suggestion and classic conditioning) was applied to all the participants to increase their relaxation during a single session. The relaxation session slightly increased happiness. A subgroup of participants who were cocaine users (N = 33) took part in a second session to reproduce the stimulant and euphoric cocaine effects. That was a “mental” reproduction session to simulate the effects of cocaine. For both conditions, all the participants filled in the 10 HTSS at the beginning and the end of the session to compare scores and to prove if the happiness state increased. For the cocaine condition, happiness markedly increased, especially in comparison to the increase during the relaxation session, for both the total group and the cocaine users group. Although this increase was achieved during a single session, similar previous studies with more continuous training and monitoring suggest that improvement in emotions can be durable and long term.