Aversion Therapy For Alcohol Abuse Evaluation

Question 1

Supporting evidence?

Answer 1

Howard (2001) treated 82 alcohol dependents with an emetic drug for 10 days. After this treatment the subjects stated that they felt that they would be able to resist drinking due to the therapy thus supporting.

Question 2

Refuting evidence?

Answer 2

Smith et al (1997) gave patients either emetic aversion or electrical aversion. Although after six months the treatment appeared to have been successful, by twelve months the majority of those treated had relapsed, thus refuting.

Question 3

Discrimination?

Answer 3

The effectiveness may be limited due to features of classical conditioning such as discrimination. For example, when used for alcoholism the patient may be given disulfiram (Antabuse) in conjunction with vodka and their conditioned response of nausea would only be produced to that specific alcohol, hence discrimination occurs

Question 4

Extinct?

Answer 4

outside of therapy if alcohol is no longer paired together with the emetic drug the conditioned response may become extinct allowing the individual to once again enjoy alcohol as the alcohol consumption (without taking disulfiram) may immediately activate the reward system. This suggests that the therapy may only be successful in the short term.

Question 5

Ethics?

Answer 5

Aversion therapy can be criticised for ethical reasons. As a treatment for alcohol abuse it requires the patient to undergo detoxification first which is likely to result in unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. However, sometimes they need to do it as alcoholism impairs health.

Question 6

It doesn’t address?

Answer 6

Aversion therapy does not address the causes of addiction and is therefore prone to have high rates of relapse over time. Eg, if the addiction is caused by personal or social issues these may still be present regardless of the therapy. Therefore, aversion therapies are most effective when combined with other treatments such as CBT