Behavioural Interventions

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Aversion Therapy

Behavioural intervention combines two concepts: learning theory and the biological approach.

Behavioural intervention

Behavioural intervention combines two concepts:
- Learning theory states that addictions can be learned, so the behaviours can also be unlearned.
- The main form being aversion therapy.
- This is combined with drug therapies (biological approach) to stop the addictions.

Aversion therapy

Aversion therapy tries to associate the addiction with unpleasant experiences.
This causes the person to break their addiction because it is associated with negative concepts.
- For example, Antabuse® is used in the aversion therapy treatment for alcoholics.

Antabuse®

The Antabuse® causes unpleasant symptoms when the taker also consumes alcohol.
It works by blocking an enzyme that breaks down alcohol.
This causes side effects such as nausea.

Association/conditioning

The addict then pairs the nausea with the act of drinking alcohol. This works on the principle of conditioning.
The alcoholic, because of the unpleasant symptoms, will be less likely to continue drinking.
Even when the addict stops taking the Antabuse®, the association will remain.

Meyer and Chesser (1970)

A study conducted by Meyer and Chesser (1970) examined the effectiveness of Antabuse® by comparing alcoholics who received the medication to a control group.
Their results showed that there was a significant difference in the two groups.

Results

Half of the ones (50%) receiving Antabuse® remained sober for a year which was significantly more than the control group.
Meyer and Chesser concluded than unpleasant responses can be conditioned.

Aversion Therapy: Covert Sensitisation

Behavioural intervention combines two concepts: learning theory and the biological approach.

Covert sensitisation

A second form of aversion therapy is called covert sensitisation.
Covert sensitisation involves associating unpleasant experiences with the act of abusing substances.
But the difference is that the unpleasant experiences are imagined - the person does not actually physically go through them.

Imagination

For example, covert sensitisation used on an alcoholic would involve them imagining a terrible experience in specific detail while having alcohol cravings.
The alcoholic would associate the horrible experience with the craving, which would lessen the likelihood of further cravings.

Kraft and Kraft (2005)

A study by Kraft and Kraft (2005) examined how effective covert sensitisation was.
They looked at small sample of six participants, each with different addictions:
- Nail biting, chocolate, over eating, cannabis, alcohol and cigarettes.

Kraft and Kraft (2005) results

Their results demonstrated that all six participants had reduced addictions.
This was after only two-four sessions.
So the technique was effective for all forms of addiction.

Evaluation of Kraft and Kraft (2005)

An important disadvantage is that the sample size was small.
This means the results cannot be generalised to the whole population.

Disadvantages of Behavioural Intervention

Behavioural intervention combines two concepts: learning theory and the biological approach. There are three main disadvantages of behavioural interventions.

Time

Aversion therapy can take a long time.
It also relies on the addict to be committed to continuing the therapy, which is not always possible.

Commitment

Aversion therapy with drugs such as Antabuse® rely on the addict taking the drug consistently and continually.
Otherwise, the negative association between the side effects and alcohol may not develop.
The addict could also simply stop taking the drug if they wanted to drink again.

Ethical issues

There are ethical issues related to the aversion stimuli.
- For example, the horrible nausea that people must imagine during aversion therapy is not entirely ethical.
Doctors and psychologists may not want to purposefully cause people pain.