Aversion Therapy - in Addictions

In Addictions

The major use of aversion therapy is currently for the treatment of addiction to alcohol and other drugs. This form of treatment has been in continuous operation since 1932. The treatment is discussed in the Principles of Addiction Medicine, Chapter 8, published by the American Society of Addiction Medicine in 2003.

Aversion therapy works on changing positive emotional associations with the sight, smell and taste of alcohol or other drugs. Follow up studies done at 6 and 12 months on populations matched on 17 baseline variables shows that aversion therapy resulted in significantly better abstinence rates. There was no increase in leaving the hospital against medical advice in patients seeking aversion therapy compared to patients in non-aversion programs.

Aversion therapy is also used in the self-help community to treat minor behavioral issues with the aid of an elastic band, the user or patient would snap the elastic band on his/her wrist while an undesirable thought/behavior presents itself.

The results of Antabuse combined with behavioral marital therapy for treating alcoholism has growing research support.

Traditional aversion therapy, which employed either chemical aversion (Watson and Reyner, 1920) or electrical aversion (Maguire and Vallance, 1964) has now, since Cautela, been replaced by aversion in the imagination, a technique which is known as covert sensitization (Cautela, 1967).

Covert sensitization is a powerful and effective form of treatment and it has been used successfully in the treatment of alcoholism, compulsive gambling and juvenile delinquency. This treatment approach can also be used in the treatment of cigarette smokers, and there are favorable results here especially when being compared to other techniques.

Kraft & Kraft (2005) assessed the value of covert sensitization in six case studies—a fingernail biter, a cannabis smoker, an obese lady, a cigarette smoker, an individual with a chocolate addiction and an alcoholic. The study showed that covert sensitization was a rapid and cost-effective form of treatment. All the individuals in the study eliminated their maladaptive behavior pattern, and this was maintained at the follow-up.

However, Okulitch and Marlatt (1972) found that alcoholics subjected to aversive therapy via electric shock did worse than an untreated control group at the 15 month follow up period.