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.     

Disulfiram maintenance employee alcoholism treatment: A three-phase evaluation

Absenteeism rates of industrial employees (N = 21) referred by their employers to alcoholism treatment were evaluated during three phases: pre-treatment (the 24 months immediately prior to treatment); treatment (the period of continuous treatment enrolment, averaging 10.6 months); and post-treatment (the period immediately following treatment, averaging 4.4 months). Treatment consisted of disulfiram maintenance—routine supervised ingestion of disulfiram—without scheduled counseling. The median per cent of scheduled work days absent for each phase was: pre-treatment, 9.8%; treatment, 1.7%; post-treatment, 6.7%. Absenteeism during the treatment phase was significantly less (p < 0.01) than that during pre-treatment and post-treatment, which did not differ significantly from one another. The five-fold reduction in absenteeism was specifically related to treatment delivery, and appears superior to the two-fold reduction reported for traditional employee alcoholism treatment via counseling.     

Expert testimony in pornography trials: A role for the social scientist

This article attempts to clarify the concepts of law, pornography, and the special role of the expert witness in pornography. Different conceptual frameworks taken by experts in this field are addressed, as are the shortcomings of various approaches. Finally, the critical role of ethics in giving expert witness testimony in pornography is discussed.     

Presentism, and speaking of the dead

Presentists standardly conform to the eternalist??s paradigm of treating all cases of property-exemplification as involving a single relation of instantiation. This, we argue, results in a much less parsimonious and philosophically explanatory picture than is possible if other alternatives are considered. We argue that by committing to primitive past and future tensed instantiation ties, presentists can make gains in both economy and explanatory power. We show how this metaphysical picture plays out in cases where an individual exists to partake in facts about its past and future, and also in cases where that individual no longer exists, and proxies (or surrogates) for that thing must be found.     

Habit and skill learning in schizophrenia: evidence of normal striatal processing with abnormal cortical input

Different forms of nondeclarative learning involve regionally specific striatal circuits. The motor circuit (involving the putamen) has been associated with motor–skill learning and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) circuit (involving the caudate) has been associated with cognitive–habit learning. Efforts to differentiate functional striatal circuits within patient samples have been limited. Previous studies have provided mixed results regarding striatal-dependent nondeclarative learning deficits in patients with schizophrenia. In this study, a cognitive–habit learning task (probabilistic weather prediction) was used to assess the DLPFC circuit and a motor–skill learning task (pursuit rotor) was used to assess the motor circuit in 35 patients with schizophrenia and 35 normal controls. Patients with schizophrenia displayed significant performance differences from controls on both nondeclarative tasks; however, cognitive–habit learning rate in patients did not differ from controls. There were performance and learning-rate differences on the motor–skill learning task between the whole sample of patients and controls, however, analysis of a subset of patients and controls matched on general intellectual level eliminated learning rate differences between groups. The abnormal performance offset between patients with schizophrenia and controls in the absence of learning rate differences suggests that abnormal cortical processing provides altered input to normal striatal circuitry.