Functional Components
The supported components are antecedents or contexts associated with use, immediate and longer-term consequences or reinforcers, and potential competing alternatives.
Functional Analysis of Substance Use
Functional Analysis of Substance Use is a Community Reinforcement Approach formulation tool for practitioners working with clients when substance use is maintained by unclear contexts, consequences, or reinforcers. It helps organize antecedents or contexts, immediate and longer-term consequences or reinforcers, and potential competing alternatives into a use-function formulation.
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Tool guide
Learn more about this tool
Use this background section to understand when the tool fits, how practitioners use it, and what to consider before sharing it with clients.
Separate Information Types
The result should distinguish client-reported information, system organization, and practitioner interpretation where practitioner notes are used.
Important Limits
The tool does not create diagnoses, causal certainty, risk scores, or intervention recommendations.
Does the tool decide what causes the client's substance use?
No. It organizes reported information into a descriptive functional map without automated causal certainty.
Can one map include several substance-use patterns?
Multiple patterns may require separate analyses if they have different antecedents or reinforcers.
What happens if a component is missing?
The formulation should be shown as incomplete, with the missing component visible for review.
Are demo formulation notes saved?
No. Saving keeps the fixed tool; fictional components and sample notes do not become real client data.