Aversion therapy

• > Aim - The idea of the therapy is to use the principles of classical conditioning in order to change the pleasurable association with the addictive substance/ behaviour and replace it with an unpleasant association in a vivo experience
• Nicotine addiction

  > Rapid smoking

  > Individuals will sit alone in a room taking a puff of a cigarette every 6 seconds

  > They will begin to feel sick and start to associate this feeling to smoking.

  > This is repeated until the individual develops an aversion to smoking, thus reducing addiction

  • ucs - rapid smoking
  • ucr - nausea
  • ns/ cs - cigarettes
  • cr - nausea
• Gambling addiction

  > Electric shocks have been used for some behavioural addictions such a gambling

  > Shocks used do not cause permanent damage, but they are meant to avert people from gambling and therefore do cause pain

  > The addicted gambler thinks of phrases that relate to gambing