Effectiveness

• there is research evidence to support the effectiveness of antabuse in treating alcohol addictions
• neiderhoffen and staffen found antabuse patients had longer abstinence then control group
• antabuse provides the unpleasant stimuli to treat addictions like alcoholism
• there is supportive evidence that rapid smoking is effective
• mcrobbie found that ppts in the rapid smoking group had significant decreases in their urges to smoke in the the 24 hours and the week after compared to control group who watched an antismoking video
• rapid smoking provides an effective unpleasant stimulus to break smoking addictions
• however, 4 weeks later there were no significant difference between the groups = short term benefits
• AT eliminates the behaviour rather then treat the root cause
• treats how the individual feels towards the focus of their addiction but not the under lying cause
• this means the problem may reoccur in the form of another addiction (sympton substitution)