An operant treatment procedure for alcoholics

For many years total abstinence was regarded as the appropriate criterion for the successful treatment of alcoholism. It is suggested that given societal norms for social consumption of alcohol, plus the social reinforcers which maintain beverage alcohol ingestion, social drinking may serve as a realistic treatment goal. The efficacy of a social drinking criterion was clearly demonstrated by Bigelow et al. (1972). Chronic alcoholic in-patients were placed in a choice situation in which they earned the opportunity to participate in an ‘enriched’ environment contingent upon either moderate drinking or abstinence. Subjects overwhelmingly chose the moderate drinking alternative. Results also suggested that moderate drinking is more reinforcing than abstinence for alcoholics. Further support for the moderate drinking concept was rendered by Mills, Sobel and Schaeffer (1971) in a study which made electric shock contingent on gulping drinks, ordering straight alcoholic drinks and ordering and consuming more than three drinks. Time-out (Cohen et al., 1971), positive reinforcement (Cohen et al., 1971) and social contracting procedures (Miller, 1972) have been effectively employed to reduce drinking behavior from maladaptive to adaptive frequencies.

The present study attempts to extend treatment with a controlled drinking outcome to out-patient alcoholics     

Maintaining disulfiram ingestion among outpatient alcoholics: a security-deposit contingency contracting procedure

Disulfiram is frequently prescribed to alcoholic patients as a deterrent to drinking. Although ingestion of ethanol by a disulfiram patient quickly results in an intense dysphonc reaction, the drug is not generally credited with significant value in alcoholism treatment (Mottin, 1973). It is suggested that most alcoholics simply stop taking the medication (Gerrein et al., 1973). and review articles conclude that motivation for abstinence is the crucial variable involved in successful disulfiram treatment (Ditman, 1966: Mottin, 1973).Motivation may be a characteristic of environmental contingencies rather than of individuals. If so, environmental contingencies should permit one to design into a disulfiram treatment progrim the requisite motivation to achieve therapeutic success. Contingency management procedures supporting disulfiram ingestion reported to date (Liebson et al., 1973: Haynes, 1973) have been of the sort to be imposed upon difficult populations rather than offered to general treatment applicants. Contingency contracting may represent a technique for supporting disulfiram ingestion appropriate to the broader general population of voluntary alcoholism treatment applicants. Contingency contract treatment (Homme, 1969; Stuart, 1971) is a procedure in which client and therapist mutually agree to establish an incentive for the client to achieve a behavioral goal. Contingency contracts can be viewed as a form of self-control therapy, and have been applied in a wide variety of problem areas, including school problems (Homme, 1969: Cantrell, et al., 1969). delinquency (Stuart, 1971),weight control (Mann, 1972). smoking reduction (Elliott and Tighe, 1968: Winett, 1973), drug abuse (Boudin, 1972), and alcoholism (Miller, 1972).Frequently contingency contracting involves the client's posting of a financial security deposit to serve as his incentive for achieving the agreed-upon therapeutic goal (Tighe and Elliot, 1968). This security deposit can be earned back consequent upon achieving specific goals, or sacrificed consequent upon failure. Controlled studies by Mann (1972) and by Winett (1973) have demonstrated this security-deposit procedure to be effective in enhancing weight loss and smoking reduction, respectively.We report here on our experience with application of the security deposit contracting procedure to maintaining routine disulfiram ingestion among outpatients in an alcoholism treatment program.     

Differences in baseline drinking behavior between New Zealand alcoholics and normal drinkers

Details of alcohol drinking by 12 New Zealand hospitalized alcoholics and 12 normal drinkers from the local community were compared in an experimental bar-and-lounge environment. Differences between the drinking behavior of the two groups were found to be statistically significant on measures of total alcohol consumed, sip size and rate of alcohol ingestion (speed of drinking). The drinking pattern exhibited was similar to that reported in baseline studies of North American drinkers, as reported by Schaefer et al. (1971). This similarity was discussed in terms of a behavioral profile of alcoholics as compared with normal drinkers for the diagnosis of problem drinking.     

The acquisition of taste aversions in humans with eating and drinking disorders

A written questionnaire or interview concerned with acquisition of illness-induced (taste) aversions to foods and drinks was given to three groups of people with eating and drinking disorders. These groups consisted of 101 male and 1 female hospitalized alcoholics, 8 male and 8 female college-student heavy consumers of alcohol and 18 females with anorexia nervosa and/or bulimia. In most respects taste-aversion acquisition in these three groups was similar to taste-aversion acquisition in a general college-student population previously studied by Logue, Ophir and Strauss (1981), and to taste-aversion acquisition in other species. In all three groups the aversions were more likely to be reported as having been formed through forward rather than simultaneous or backward conditioning, and long-delay learning was frequent. The aversions usually formed to the tastes rather than to the appearance or other aspects of the foods and drinks. Extinction appeared more effective in decreasing the aversions than did forgetting. While the illness responsible for the aversions forming was usually attributed to the subsequently aversive food or drink, in at least one third of the cases subjects reported that something else might have caused their illness. Aversions were more likely to have formed to relatively less familiar and less preferred foods and drinks. However, the hospitalized alcoholics reported fewer aversions, less generalization of aversions, and stronger nausea as the cause of the aversions than did Logue et al.'s (1981) subjects. About 15% of these subjects reported taste aversions to alcoholic beverages. The college-student heavy consumers of alcohol reported no generalization of their taste aversions, but in other respects were similar to Logue et al.'s subjects. Thirty-one percent of these subjects reported taste aversions to alcoholic beverages. The anorexic and bulimic subjects were also similar to Logue et al.'s subjects with the exception that they, like the hospitalized alcoholics, reported stronger nausea as the cause of the aversions. These data may help to understand and treat people with eating and drinking disorders     

Subjective responses to alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages by alcoholic respondents

Changes in the subjective response to alcohol following electrical aversive conditioning have been studied through the use of the semantic differential (Costello, 1974; Costello et al., 1974a, 1974b; Hallam et al., 1972; Miller et al., 1974; Miller et al. 1973). As pointed out by the Costello group and by Kaplan (1972) there are several problems with this technique. The midpoint of the 7-point scale may be psychologically impossible to define if the subject does not perceive the adjectives pairs as mutually antagonistic. It is frequently assumed that the adjective pairs are bipolar, based on the original work of Osgood et al. (1957). Recent evidence (Costello, 1974; Costello et al., 1974a, 1974b) has demonstrated that the scales used by Hallam et al. (1972) were in fact, not bipolar.The stimuli used by Costello and coworkers were an alcoholic and a non-alcoholic slide, following the work of Hallam et al. (1972). Recent studies (Miller et al., 1974; Miller et al., 1973; Wilson, 1973) have utilized rating the taste of real alcohol, as opposed to slides, in order to measure the effectiveness of behavioral therapies in alcoholism. The subject is asked to taste several beverages, some of which have alcohol, and rate the taste of each drink on a set of semantic differential adjective pairs. Miller et al. (1974), found that while the actual amount of pre-therapy alcoholic beverage consumed predicted which subjects did better at 6 months outcome, the semantic differential ratings did not. One reason might have been that the scales were not bipolar and thus the semantic measurement was highly unreliable.The purpose of the present study was to replicate the Costello studies, using real beverages, alcoholic and non-alcoholic as the stimuli.     

Characteristics of the relapse situation of alcoholics treated with aversion conditioning

Recently, there has been considerable interest in applying the principles of learning theory and operant conditioning to the problems of alcoholism. One principle which may be of value is stimulus control. The principle of stimulus control would suggest that there should be some degree of similarity between the environmental circumstances in which alcoholics do their drinking and the situation where they take their first, post-treatment, drink. The principle of stimulus control also suggests that alcoholics treated with aversion therapy would tend to relapse under environmental conditions that were in some way different from their usual drinking environments.Whether we are able to observe a difference in drinking environments before and after treatment depends on whether we have selected the appropriate stimulus dimensions. The present author is in agreement with Lunde and Vogler (1970) who suggest that; types of liquor consumed; drinking associates; whether at home alone, with others or at a bar; are some of the important characteristics of an alcoholic's learning history. These stimulus conditions could be further simplified to location, type of beverage and social or non-social drinking.Since it is physically impossible to turn time backwards or to have observers follow patients everywhere they go, we must rely on self-reports of alcoholics about their drinking history. Although many clinicians have reservations about the veracity of alcoholics. Guze et al. (1963) report that 97 per cent of alcoholics in a prison population could be correctly diagnosed from their own self-report. Thus, it appears that at least when interviewed in the context of a research study where no contingencies are placed on their behavior, verbal or otherwise, self-report by alcoholics can indeed be reliable. The present study examined the relapse situation of alcoholics in terms of the location of the first drink episode, the social environment, and type of beverage consumed and compared this situation to the usual (most frequent) drinking situation prior to treatment.     

Individualized Behavior Therapy for Alcoholics – Republished Article

A behavior therapy for alcoholism was designed based on the rationale that alcoholic drinking is a discriminated, operant response. Treatment emphasized determining setting events for each subject’s drinking and training equally effective alternative responses to those situations. Seventy male, hospitalized, Gamma alcoholics were assigned to a treatment goal of either nondrinking (N = 30) or controlled drinking (N = 40). Subjects of each group were then randomly assigned to either an experimental group receiving 17 behavioral treatment sessions or a control group receiving only conventional treatment. Treatment of experimental groups differed only in drinking behaviors allowed during sessions and electric shock avoidance schedules. Nondrinker experimental subjects shaped to abstinence, while controlled drinker experimental subjects practiced appropriate drinking behaviors with little shaping, a result attributed to instructions. Follow-up measuring drinking and other behaviors found that experimental subjects functioned significantly better after discharge than control subjects, regardless of treatment goal. Successful experimental subjects could apply treatment principles to setting events not considered during treatment, suggesting the occurrence of rule learning. Results are discussed as evidence that some “alcoholics” can acquire and maintain controlled drinking behaviors. Traditional treatment of alcoholics may be handicapped by unvalidated beliefs concerning the nature of the disorder.     

Alcoholic Subtypes and the MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale

Forty-five alcoholics in treatment (29 males and 16 females) who reported substantial alcohol dependence but scored in the nonalcoholic range on the MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale (MAC) were matched with 45 alcoholics who reported a similar degree of alcohol dependence and obtained alcoholic-range scores on the MAC. Results reveal that high MAC alcoholics were characterized by gregariousness, social drinking, belligerence and aggression while drinking, and a high degree of alcohol-related legal problems. Low MAC alcoholics appeared to be a different or less distinctive type of alcoholic; although they were less outgoing and preferred not to drink with others, they experienced a wide range of serious alcohol-related consequences. Low MAC alcoholics were not more likely to have a history of nonsubstance use psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. Cloninger, Bohman, and Sigvardsson's (1981) alcoholic typology was related to MAC scores: There was a greater likelihood that high-MAC alcoholics were Type II and low MAC alcoholics Type I.     

Modification of excessive drinking by cue exposure

The value of an individual case study depends to a large extent on the nature of the predictions which are tested. If, for example, behaviour is modified by a method which flies in the face of current theory and practice, then it is worth reporting, and if detailed predictions about day-to-day changes are confirmed, so much the better. This individual case study was designed to test the possibility that excessive drinking behaviour can be modified by prolonged exposure to drinking cues.Our approach is based on the hypothesis that addictive behaviour is analogous to discriminated operants. We are also making the assumption that drinking, in the alcoholic, is frequently reinforced through the avoidance of unpleasant consequences (e.g. an escalation in anxiety, frustration or withdrawal symptoms) and that these avoidance responses are discriminated since they are triggered only by certain cues.Avoidance learning has been investigated in humans and animals for at least 50 years but in recent years strong evidence has accumulated which suggests a particular modification procedure. First, it has now been demonstrated that, in animals, a very effective extinction procedure involves exposure to the discriminative stimulus (i.e. cue) whilst blocking the avoidance response (Baum, 1969). Second, psychologists have considered obsessive-compulsive rituals to be analogous to avoidance responses (Hodgson and Rachman, 1972). Compulsive gas-tap checking, for example, avoids both catastrophic events and also unpleasant emotional states. During the last ten years an effective method of modifying obsessive-compulsive rituals has been developed which involves exposure to significant cues followed by response prevention which is either supervised (Meyer, 1966) or self-imposed (Rachman et al., 1971; Hodgson et al., 1972). The same method has also been successful in the modification of compulsive masturbation (Hodgson and Rachman, 1975).     

Biofeedback and reinforcement to increase heterosexual arousal in homosexuals

Relatively few procedures exist for developing heterosexual arousal in the treatment of sexual deviation (Barlow, 1973) although several recent studies suggest this is a necessary component of treatment (Feldman and MacCulloch, 1971; Bancroft, 1970; Barlow, 1974).In recent years, biofeedback techniques have been applied to many types of disorders (Blanchard and Young, 1974). Basic to biofeedback technology is the notion that providing a person with feedback (or immediate information) of a bioelectric response enables him to learn (gain) self-control of that response. These responses traditionally have been considered involuntary and include heart rate (Scott et al., 1973a). blood pressure (Benson et al., 1971), stomach acid pH (Welgan. 1972), and electroencephalographic activity (Sterman, 1972), In the present experiments, biofeedback and its attendant technology was applied to the problem of generating heterosexual arousal in homosexual males.Frequently, in biofeedback research, reinforcement has been used in addition to feedback in attempting to teach self-control of a response. In fact, an alternate way of conceptualizing and describing the biofeedback research is in terms of operant conditioning (e.g., Weiss and Engel, 1971: Scott et al., 1973b). In one sense, however, feedback and reinforcement are inextricably confounded: the delivery or non-delivery of a reinforcer provides the S with information about the rightness or wrongness of his response and hence, binary feedback about it. Likewise, if feedback or knowledge of whether the response has reached a criterion level or not is effective in leading to a change in the response, then feedback functions as a reinforcer. Reinforcement, however, may be viewed as providing both information about the response (feedback) plus an incentive to change it in the desired direction in addition to any incentive provided by successful performance of a task. Thus, if one provides Ss with a separate, functionally defined reinforcer in such a way that no additional information about the response is conveyed, it becomes possible to detect additive effects of reinforcement over feedback effects. Such was the second purpose of this study.Several recent analogue experiments with volunteers have reported success in modifying erections through feedback and/or reinforcement. Price (1973) found that heterosexual volunteers who received analogue visual feedback as well as binary feedback, provided by a colored light once the needle had passed a pre-set criterion, showed a shorter latency to peak erection and maintained criterion erection longer than a control group receiving no feedback. Both groups were listening to erotic audio tapes. Rosen (1973) demonstrated significant suppression of tumescence in a group of heterosexual volunteers provided with response contingent signal lights. A group receiving non-contingent feedback did not show this effect. In a technical paper, Laws and Pawlowski (1973) have suggested audio feedback of tumescence as a treatment for deficits in sexual arousal.In the clinic, Harbison, Quinn and McAllister (1970), in an uncontrolled case study, reported increasing heterosexual responsiveness in homosexuals through reinforcement of erection. In one of their homosexual patients they were able, over a long series of trials, to increase erection to a heterosexual stimulus (female slide) through rewarding progressively larger responses with sips of iced lime after the patient was water deprived. In addition to the reinforcement, this S was given feedback, of sorts, in that a light was flashed for each successful trial. A second homosexual patient was similarly rewarded for maintaining progressively longer and clearer fantasies of heterosexual behavior. Since other treatments were also applied and no experimental analysis was performed, it is not possible to evaluate the effectiveness of the procedure.In the present experiment the separate effects of feedback and reinforcement to increase heterosexual arousal in homosexuals was experimentally evaluated using single case experimental design methodology (Barlow and Hersen, 1973). Since each experiment was somewhat different in design and purpose, each will be described separately.     

Alcoholic subtypes and the MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale.

Forty-five alcoholics in treatment (29 males and 16 females) who reported substantial alcohol dependence but scored in the nonalcoholic range on the MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale (MAC) were matched with 45 alcoholics who reported a similar degree of alcohol dependence and obtained alcoholic-range scores on the MAC. Results reveal that high MAC alcoholics were characterized by gregariousness, social drinking, belligerence and aggression while drinking, and a high degree of alcohol-related legal problems. Low MAC alcoholics appeared to be a different or less distinctive type of alcoholic; although they were less outgoing and preferred not to drink with others, they experienced a wide range of serious alcohol-related consequences. Low MAC alcoholics were not more likely to have a history of nonsubstance use psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. Cloninger, Bohman, and Sigvardsson's (1981) alcoholic typology was related to MAC scores: There was a greater likelihood that high-MAC alcoholics were Type II and low MAC alcoholics Type I.     

Electroencephalographic biofeedback methodology and the management of epilepsy

Currently considerable research is being directed toward developing methodologies for controlling internal processes. An applied branch of the basic field of psychophysiology, known as biofeedback, has developed to fulfill clinical needs related to such control. Current scientific and popular literature abounds with numerous examples of how biofeedback is being used. For example, germinal studies by Kamiya (1962), and later work by Lynch and Paskewitz (1971), and Beatty (1973), as well as many others have shown that the EEG alpha rhythm (8–13 Hz) recorded from occipital regions of the human brain can be behaviorally manipulated when feedback or reward is provided for changing the density of this activity. Other researchers have provided evidence that theta activity (4–7 Hz) and the beta activity (greater than 14 Hz) can also be controlled by humans and analogs of this activity have been conditioned in animals as well, (Green, Green and Walters, 1971). In addition to the work that has been carried out with the EEG, researchers such as Engle and Bleecker (1973) have indicated that it might be possible to control cardiac arrhythmias through biofeedback. Studies by Elder,et al. (1973), have provided some hope that blood pressure in humans might also be conditioned. Also, considerable effort has been directed to the control of responses from single muscles with particular applied emphasis in neuromuscular rehabilitation, control of muscle tension for tension headaches and the management of migraine headaches through vasomotor conditioning (Brudny,et al., 1974; Basmajian, 1963, 1971; Sargent, et al., 1973).     

Les effets de l’ingestion aiguë d’alcool sur le jugement d’expressions faciales émotionnelles spontanées et dynamiques

This study is interested in the link between acute alcohol consumption and the perception of dynamic and spontaneous emotional facial expressions (EFE). The noxious effects of alcohol on EFE recognition are now well demonstrated (Attwood et al., 2009a). Studies showed that alcohol drinking impairs the judgment of facial expressions, especially of negative ones (EFE of anger and disgust notably). However, such effects have been observed for the judgment of artificial material (static/posed/morphed/EFE). Yet, everyday EFE are far from the archetypes used in the lab. Therefore, the present study aims at completing previous observations, this time for the identification of dynamic and spontaneous EFE. Dynamic and spontaneous EFE of amusement, interest, irritation, anxiety, and neutral were judged by 63 normal male drinkers. Buck et al.’s (1972) paradigm was adopted since it is recommended for the study of nonverbal behavior in the process of communication ( [Buck, 1990] , [Wagner, 1990] , [Wagner et al., 1986] and [Zuckerman et al., 1976] ). The emotion to be identified is the one self-reported by the EFE sender. On the pretext of tasting drinks, participants were randomly assigned to one out of six experimental conditions. Two conditions are concerned with the nature of the drink (alcohol or non-alcohol drink). Three other conditions relate to the participant's experimentally manipulated belief regarding the nature of the drink (non-alcohol drink, slight alcohol drink, hard alcohol drink). Results confirm the emotion identification impairment due to alcohol usually noted, thus showing that the effects of alcohol are also observed for the perception of spontaneous and natural facial expressions. Indeed, the comparison of participants who drank alcoholic drinks versus those who did not drink alcohol shows that the formers identify less well emotions than the latter. Moreover, results show that beliefs do not play a role in this deficit since participants’ identification errors are not linked to the belief they hold regarding the nature of the drink (with/without alcohol). Finally, the confusion matrix analysis brings to light the existence of recurrent confusions amongst alcoholized participants, confusions that do not appear amongst sober participants. Thus, results show that, to the exception of EFE of amusement, participants who drank alcohol recurrently assess stimuli as displaying anxiety. To conclude, it comes out that acute alcohol drinking alters the capacity to accurately identify spontaneous emotions expressed by faces, which capacity is essential to the smooth unfolding of human interactions.     

Collegiate COAs and Alcohol Abuse: Problem Drinking in Relation to Assessments of Parent and Grandparent Alcoholism

In a survey of college students (N = 860), significantly greater problem drinking was indicated by students who reported having a parent or grandparent diagnosed or treated for alcoholism. The highest rates of problem drinking were found among students who reported both an alcoholic parent and grandparent. Students who had experienced distress and family discord from parental alcohol abuse, though without a diagnosed alcoholic parent, also indicated greater problem drinking. The increased alcohol problems of students without a diagnosed alcoholic parent, however, were somewhat different from other children of alcoholics (COAs). Thus, different types of COAs must be considered in research, treatment, and prevention programs.     

A comparison of the differential effects of three different baseline conditions within an ABA1B1 experimental design

The use of the ABA₁B₁ design over recent years in applied behavioural research has prompted many researchers to comment on its strengths and weaknesses (Kazdin, 1973; Kazdin and Bootzin, 1972; Liberman, 1972; Peck and Thorpe, 1971). One major problem is that many different types of non-contingent or no-reinforcement conditions have been used and that different types of baseline conditions may produce different effects. Despite the volume of research using a derivative of this design, surprisingly little is known about the effects of different baseline conditions.The baseline conditions most frequently used include the following: 1. No reinforcement (O'Leary and Becker, 1967; Hall et al., 1972; Aitchison and Green, 1974). 2. Threats (Phillips et al., 1971). 3. Reinforcing other types of behaviour (Ayllon and Azrin, 1965). 4. Equivalent amounts of reinforcement given in baseline and experimental conditions with all baseline reinforcement given non-contingently at the beginning or end of the phase (Wincze et al, 1972; Fernadez et al., 1973; Burchard, 1967). 5. Equivalent amounts of reinforcement in baseline and experimental conditions with baseline reinforcement given non-contingently at regular intervals or randomly throughout the phase (Foxx and Azrin, 1973; Baer and Wolf, 1970).Baer and Wolf (1970) have stated that: ‘Non-contingent reinforcement as a method of extinction has certain characteristics which may make it the method of choice for some experimental designs: especially those designs in which the adult offers reinforcers to a child’. They feel that this method is to be preferred because the total amount of reinforcement can be held constant over all conditions and thus will not be a confounding variable between conditions. However, as Skinner (1948) demonstrated, rate of behaviour can be changed by non-contingent reinforcement when ‘superstitious’ causal relations appear between behaviour and presentation of reinforcement. In effect the rate of behaviour increases because it has accidentally occurred before the presentation of reinforcement and so a connection is established whereby the probability of the behaviour is increased despite the fact that it is not causally related to reinforcement. Morse and Skinner (1957) have said about superstitious conditioning ‘Such effects must always be allowed for in designing experiments on complex behaviour’. Catania and Cutts (1963) and Yelen (1971) have shown that such superstitious conditioning can occur with human subjects.The present experiment employed three groups each trained under the same conditions but with different baseline conditions—1, 4 and 5 above. A multiple baseline design was used in which all possible responses were recorded in a four choice situation so that any accidental contingencies established would be evident.     

Effects of relaxation instructions on the electromyographic responses of abstinent alcoholics to drinking-related stimuli

Viewed from a behavioral perspective alcoholism is a behavioral disorder which should be influenced by the same range of environmental and historical variables which affect other operant behaviors. Therefore, environmental stimulus circumstances should play a significant role in influencing alcoholics' disposition to drink. In particular, stimuli which have previously been associated with drinking behavior should come to exert some controlling influence over subsequent disposition to drink. Relapse to substance abuse is often believed to be precipitated by exposure to stimulus circumstances previously associated with the drug or its use. This hypothesis has received its greatest emphasis in the area of narcotics abuse (Wikler, 1965). but presumably it is relevant also to the case of alcohol abuse. Research concerning abusers' reactions to alcohol-related or drinking-related stimuli has been minimal. Ludwig et al. (1974) have presented data suggesting that alcohol-related stimuli interact with priming doses of ethanol to increase alcoholics' disposition to drink. Miller et al. (1974), however, failed to observe a significant effect of drinking-related stimuli upon alcoholics' disposition to drink.

In the field of behavior therapy, relaxation and stimulus-exposure techniques (e.g. systematic desensitization) are often recommended as techniques for reducing the effect of environmental stimuli upon an individual's behavior. However, data are lacking concerning the effect of relaxation training upon alcoholics. The present study uses psychophysiological procedures to investigate three issues concerning the effect of drinking-related stimuli and relaxation instructions upon alcoholics: (1) the effect of a single session of systematic relaxation instructions upon the electromyographic tension levels of abstinent alcoholics; (2) the effect of drinking-related auditory stimuli upon the electromyographic tension levels of abstinent alcoholics; and (3) the influence of prior relaxation instructions upon the EMG responses of abstinent alcoholics exposed to drinking-related stimuli.     

L’impact du burnout scolaire sur les comportements d’alcoolisation des adolescents

Objective

The aim of this study was to explore the impact of school-related burnout symptoms. on alcohol consumption habits among adolescents. Alcohol consumption is rather common among adolescents. Indeed, recent French research (Spilka et al., 2015) has shown that in a sample of 17-year-old adolescents up to 89.3% declared at least one alcohol consumption experience over lifetime, 58.9% experienced drunkenness over the last year, and 48.8% declared binge drinking experiences over last month. In the meantime, high-school students are exposed to a high level of school-related stress, which could lead to school-related burnout (Salmela-Aro et al., 2009). Previous studies have shown that school-related burnout is associated with several addictive behaviors, such as tobacco use (Moncla, Walburg, Milhaes, 2014) cannabis consumption (Walburg, Moncla, Milhaes, 2015) or problematic Facebook use (Walburg, Milhaes, Moncla, 2016). Therefore, the aim of the present study was to explore weather school-related burnout could influence alcohol use behaviors among high-school students.

Electroencephalographic biofeedback methodology and the management of epilepsy

Currently considerable research is being directed toward developing methodologies for controlling internal processes. An applied branch of the basic field of psychophysiology, known as biofeedback, has developed to fulfill clinical needs related to such control. Current scientific and popular literature abounds with numerous examples of how biofeedback is being used. For example, germinal studies by Kamiya (1962), and later work by Lynch and Paskewitz (1971), Beatty (1973), as well as many others have shown that the EEG alpha rhythm (8 to 13 Hz) recorded from occipital regions of the human brain can be behaviorally manipulated when feedback or reward is provided for changing the density of this activity. Other researchers have provided evidence that theta activity (4 to 7 Hz) and the beta activity (greater than 14 Hz) can also be controlled by humans and analogs of this activity have been conditioned in animals as well (Green, Green and Walters, 1971). In addition to the work that has been carried out with the EEG, researchers such as Engle and Bleecker (1973) have indicated that it might be possible to control cardiac arrhythmias through biofeedback. Studies by Elder et al. (1973) have provided some hope that blood pressure in humans might also be conditioned. Also, considerable effort has been directed to the control of responses from single muscles with particular applied emphasis in neuromuscular rehabilitation, control of muscle tension for tension headaches and the management of migraine headaches through vasomotor conditioning (Brudny et al., 1974; Basmajian, 1963, 1971; Sargent et al., 1973).     

The effects of ethanol intoxication on phobic anxiety

Behavioral conceptions of alcohol abuse often include the hypothesis that drinking behavior is a negatively reinforced operant, with ethanol intoxication viewed as alleviating aversive environmental and internal states. This hypothesis has not been confirmed or refuted by previous studies which employed mild stressors and limited assessment methodology. In the present experiment, 22 patients with severe phobias approached their phobic animal under two consecutive conditions—first while sober and second after drinking either a placebo or an intoxicating dose of ethanol. The severe anxiety induced was assessed behaviorally, physiologically and by the patient's self-report of fear. The intoxicated patients did not experience decreased anxiety, tachycardia or avoidance, compared to the placebo group. These results have clinical implications and suggest the need to reconsider tension-reduction theories of alcohol abuse.     

Effects of social stress on operant drinking of alcoholics and social drinkers

The relationship between social stress and alcohol consumption was examined in 10 alcoholics and 10 social drinkers matched on age and education. Drinking was measured via 10 minutes of operant responding whereby lever presses earned alcohol reinforcement on an FR-50 schedule. During stress conditions, subjects were exposed to simulated interpersonal encounters requiring assertive behavior. In terms of autonomie arousal, both groups were equally stressed. The no-stress condition consisted of non-threatening discussions of pleasurable spare time activities. Alcoholics significantly increased their operant responding to obtain alcohol following stress conditions while social drinkers did not.