Behavioural Interventions for Reducing Addiction

• Aversion Therapy

  • based on classical conditioning

  addictive behaviour becomes associated with an aversive outcome (vomiting). based on the idea the aversive outcome will have higher contiguity so the addiction will be extinguished
• Higher Contiguity means the aversive outcome will overpower the reward that the addiction produces
• Aversion Therapy for Gambling-

  patient receives a painful shock when they read out a gambling related phrase
• Aversion Therapy for Alcohol-

  patient given a tablet that causes severe nausea and vomiting after having an alcoholic drink to associate feeling sick with drinking alcohol
• Covert Sensitisation:

  type of aversion therapy and is based on classical conditioning. Occurs In-Vitro (imagining an unpleasant stimulus). Client is taught to relax and told to imagine the aversive situation. The more vivid the imaginary scene the better, should go into graphic detail to extinguish the addiction
• Evaluation for Behavioural Interventions in Reducing Addiction:

  (P) Supporting research evidence

  (E) Smith & Frawley (1993)

  (E) studied 600 patients being treated through aversion therapy for Alcoholism. After 12 months, 65% were still resistant

  (L) Suggesting aversion therapy is effective in extinguishing alchoholism
• + counterargument

  Hajek & Stead (2011) reviewed 25 studies of aversion therapy for nicotine addiction and found a lack of blind procedures. Researchers may have exaggerated the effectiveness of aversion therapies suggesting results need to be treated with caution, challenging the validity.
• Evaluation for Behavioural Interventions in Reducing Addiction:

  (P) Supporting research evidence

  (E) Mc Conaghy (1983)

  (E) compared aversion therapy & covert sensitisation in treating gambling addiction. After a year those who received covert sensitisation were more likely to have reduced gambling (90%), compared to aversion therapy (30%).

  (L) suggesting covert sensitisation may be more effective in treating a gambling addiction
• Evaluation for Behavioural Interventions in Reducing Addiction:

  (P) serious ethical issues

  (E) psychological & physical harm which they have the right to not experience

  (E) aversion therapy uses drugs that cause extremely uncomfortable consequences (nausea + vomiting). Covert sensitisation demands a patient to imagine shameful situations (smoking cigarettes covered in faeces)

  (L) ethical issues can lead to poor compliance with treatment and high dropout rates, decreasing the usefulness of behavioural treatments