Aversion therapy

Aversion therapy is a form of psychological treatment in which the patient is exposed to a stimulus while simultaneously being subjected to some form of discomfort. This conditioning is intended to cause the patient to associate the stimulus with unpleasant sensations with the intention of quelling the targeted (sometimes compulsive) behavior.

Aversion therapy
ICD-9-CM94.33
MeSHD001348

Aversion therapies can take many forms, for example: placing unpleasant-tasting substances on the fingernails to discourage nail-chewing; pairing the use of an emetic with the experience of alcohol; or pairing behavior with electric shocks of mild to higher intensities.

In addictions

Various forms of aversion therapy have been used in the treatment of addiction to alcohol and other drugs since 1932 (discussed in Principles of Addiction Medicine, Chapter 8, published by the American Society of Addiction Medicine in 2003).

Alcohol addiction

An approach to the treatment of alcohol dependence that has been wrongly characterized as aversion therapy involves the use of disulfiram,[1] a drug which is sometimes used as a second-line treatment under appropriate medical supervision.[2] When a person drinks even a small amount of alcohol, disulfiram causes sensitivity involving highly unpleasant reactions, which can be clinically severe.[1] Rather than as an actual aversion therapy, the nastiness of the disulfiram-alcohol reaction is deployed as a drinking deterrent for people receiving other forms of therapy who actively wish to be kept in a state of enforced sobriety (disulfiram is not administered to active drinkers).[1][3]

Cocaine dependency

Emetic therapy and faradic aversion therapy has been used to induce aversion for cocaine dependency.[4]

Cigarette addiction

It is unknown whether aversion therapy, in the form of rapid smoking (to provide an unpleasant stimulus), can help tobacco smokers overcome the urge to smoke.[5]

In compulsive habits

Aversion therapy has been used in the context of subconscious or compulsive habits, such as chronic nailbiting, hair-pulling (trichotillomania), or skin-picking (commonly associated with forms of obsessive compulsive disorder as well as trichotillomania).

In history

Pliny the Elder attempted to heal alcoholism in the first century Rome by putting putrid spiders in alcohol abusers' drinking glasses.[6]

In 1935, Charles Shadel turned a colonial mansion in Seattle into the Shadel Sanatorium where he began treating alcoholics for their substance use disorder.[7] His enterprise was launched with the help of gastroenterologist Walter Voegtlin and psychiatrist Fred Lemere. Together, they created a medical practice that exclusively treated chronic alcoholism through Pavlovian conditioned reflex aversion therapy.[8]

See also

References
  1. "Disulfiram - FDA prescribing information, side effects and uses". Drugs.com. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  2. Stokes, M; Abdijadid, S (January 2018). "Disulfiram". Stat Pearls. PMID 29083801.
  3. Brewer, C; Streel, E; Skinner, M (2017). "Supervised Disulfiram's Superior Effectiveness in Alcoholism Treatment: Ethical, Methodological, and Psychological Aspects". Alcohol and Alcoholism. 52 (2): 213–219. doi:10.1093/alcalc/agw093. PMID 28064151.
  4. Jerome J. Platt (2000). Cocaine Addiction: Theory, Research, and Treatment. Harvard University Press. pp. 241–. ISBN 978-0-674-00178-7.
  5. Hajek, P; Stead, LF (2004). "Aversive smoking for smoking cessation". The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (3): CD000546. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD000546.pub2. PMC 7045729. PMID 15266433.
  6. Assessment and therapy : specialty articles from the Encyclopedia of mental health. Friedman, Howard S. (1st ed.). San Diego [Calif.]: Academic Press. 2001. ISBN 9780080527635. OCLC 171135237.CS1 maint: others (link)
  7. White, William. "American Institutions Specializing in the Treatment of Alcohol and Drug Addiction 1840-1950" (PDF). Williamwhitepapers.com. Williamwhitepapers.com. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  8. Lemere, Frederick (1987). "Aversion Treatment of Alcoholism: Some Reminiscences". British Journal of Addiction: 257–258. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  9. Geerling, Wayne (2018). "Choice, liberty and repression in A Clockwork Orange". In Charity-Joy Revere Acchiardo; Michelle Albert Vachris (ed.). Dystopia and Economics: A Guide to Surviving Everything from the Apocalypse to Zombies. Taylor & Francis. pp. 107ff. ISBN 978-1-351-68564-1.
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