Question

PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDER THERAPEUTIC TECHNIQUE

SUZY

EXAMPLE Alcoholism Behavioral: Aversion Therapy

Suzy tells you that her drinking is causing recurring social problems with her family and she finds that she often is showing up late or missing work. She drinks to relax prior to social events and in the morning as an "eye-opener" or to get rid of a hangover. Once she starts drinking, she sometimes loses control over the amount consumed. She makes statements such as: "I can drink a lot without it’s having any effect on me, so I don't have to worry." She has tried unsuccessfully to cut down the extent of alcohol use on her own.

GOAL OF THERAPEUTIC APPROACH

TREATMENT APPROACH

Answer 1

Goal of Therapeutic Approach

Goal of using an aversion therapy as treatment for alcoholism is to eliminate such self-destructive or undesirable behaviors. The patient herself says that alcoholism is ruining her life by causing social problem, with her family and interfering with her work life. This is seen as undesirable and destructive. Aversion therapy will help treat the root of cause of such behaviors by pairing the behavior with an unpleasant stimuli hat will eventually cause an aversion to it. Aversion therapy is based upon Pavlov's theory of classical conditioning where a behavior can be conditioned to elicit a response by pairing it with a stimulus.

Treatment approach

Aversion therapy can be used to treat a variety of behavioral problems but the most common application of this treatment approach are for the treatment of sex offenders, drug or substance addicts and alcoholism. Approach of the treatment is simple and takes place in few simple steps:

1. Before the treatment starts the physician is to have the client undergo medical examinations to deem the individual as being safe if an aversive stimulus is to be used. Example, people with heart condition, gastrointestinal problems, etc. are not safe for aversion treatments.
2. The physician has to educate and explain to the client how the treatment works, what will be done and how long it will take, about its success rate, etc. The client or the guardian also has to give his/her consent and sign them.
3. For alcoholism, mostly chemical stimuli is used as treatment. In usually involves administering a drug like disulfiram (Antabuse) which reacts and causes negative side effect (nausea, headache, etc.) within minutes of alcohol consumption by disruption of its metabolism.
4. The treatment continues till the individual develops a complete aversion to alcohol.
5. The treatment is paired with follow-up programs to prevent relapse and to increase the effectiveness and longevity of the treatment.