Reducing addiction: Aversion therapy Flashcards
What are the principles of aversion therapy?
Works on principles of classical conditioning, and tries to replace positive associations to addictions (eg smoking relieves stress) with adverse / negative associations (eg smoking makes me feel sick).
How is aversion therapy used for alcohol dependency?
Alcohol is paired with an emetic drug called antabuse which induces severe nausea and vomiting when combined with alcohol. The individual is then encouraged to drink alcohol to create a negative association and this process is repeated to strengthen the association.
What is the classical conditioning diagram for alcohol?
Antabuse (unconditioned stimulus) = Nausea (unconditioned response)
Alcohol (former conditioned stimulus) = Pleasure (former conditioned response)
Antabuse + Alcohol = nausea (new unconditioned response)
Alcohol (new conditioned response) = nausea (new conditioned response)
How is aversion therapy used for rapid smoking?
The clients must break any positive associations with smoking.
Hence, the client is required to sit in a closed room and take puffs on a cigarette every 6 seconds, which is much faster than normal.
This rapid inhalation and constant exposure to fumes, leads to feelings of nausea and makes client feel ill.
Underlying this approach is the newly formed negative feelings the smoker will now associate with nicotine, and develop an aversion to smoking (Spiegler et al 2003).
AVERSION THERAPY: Research evidence?
Howard (2001) assessed 82 US alcoholic Ps across 5 sessions in a 10 day treatment trial.
In each session, Ps were given emetic -Antabuse and then their preferred alcoholic drink to smell and taste. Vomiting occurred 5-8 mins after taking the drug and they were then instructed to drink the alcohol (which was immediately regurgitated). This was repeated a number of times with different alcoholic drinks.
After treatment, their reports of positive alcohol-related expectancies had decreased substantially and their belief that they could refrain from drinking had increased.
AVERSION THERAPY: Ethical issues?
Even when Pts have given fully informed consent, aversion therapy can increase the anxiety that actually interferes with the treatment process and it is causing physical suffering. Some patients have also experienced anger and hostility during therapy. So the principle aim of causing unpleasant experiences to alleviate this condition is questionable.
AVERSION THERAPY: Effective?
Aversion therapy (much like drug treatments) may eliminate the behaviour but not the underlying problem.
If the addictions arise, for example due to ‘cognitive biases’ then this is not being directly dealt with so the addictive desire may persist even if the behaviour itself is seen to be extinguished via the therapy.
AVERSION THERAPY: Long term effectiveness?
When a person is exposed to an environment associated with drug taking for instance, after the completion of therapy, some of the mental and physical changes associated with cravings are reactivated and the person may likely relapse (Siegal et al 1987).
This means this treatment may only work more effectively if combined with other treatments
