The Community Reinforcement Approach (CRA) is an alcoholism treatment approach that aims to achieve abstinence by eliminating positive reinforcement for drinking and enhancing positive reinforcement for sobriety.

CRA integrates several treatment components including:

• Build the adolescent’s motivation to quit drinking
• Help the client initiate sobriety
• Analyze the client’s drinking pattern
• Increase positive reinforcement
• Teach the teen new coping behaviors
• Involve significant others in the recovery process.

These components can be adjusted to the individual client’s needs to achieve optimal treatment outcome. In addition, treatment outcome can be influenced by factors such as therapist style and initial treatment intensity.

Several studies have provided evidence for CRA’s effectiveness in achieving abstinence. Furthermore, the Community Reinforcement Approach has been successfully integrated with a variety of other treatment approaches, such as family therapy and motivational interviewing, and has been tested in the treatment of other drug abuse.