Short-term effects of behaviour therapy and hospital treatment of chronic alcoholics

Conditioning therapies, including electro-aversion treatment, of advanced states of alcoholism have not yielded an impressive record. There are probably several reasons for this state of affairs. Many studies have neglected the concurrent training of socially acceptable behaviour in the place of heavy drinking (Sobell and Sobell, 1972), and few studies have taught patients' relaxation or other anxiety-relieving methods (Blake, 1965). It may also be that treatment attempts have focused on conditioning fear or disgust to drinking stimuli themselves rather than covert, cognitive associations to various drinking situations (Claesson and Malm, 1973). The elements of electro-aversion therapy of alcoholism are little known and a number of problems remain to be investigated (Rachman and Teasdale, 1969; Hallam and Rachman, 1972). Among these problems are: how do we account for the different effects of electro-aversion therapy for different clients? How long-lasting are the effects of electro-aversion therapy?