The community reinforcement approach was developed by Nathan Azrin in the early 1970s and has considerable research supporting its effectiveness in working with addicts.The community reinforcement approach (CRA) was "originally developed for individuals with alcohol use disorders, [but] has been successfully employed to treat a variety of substance use disorders for more than 35 years. Based on operant conditioning [a type of learning], CRA helps people rearrange their lifestyles so that healthy, drug-free living becomes rewarding and thereby competes with alcohol and drug use."