TASTE-AVERSION THERAPY WITH ALCOHOLICS - TECHNIQUES AND EVIDENCE OF A CONDITIONED-RESPONSE

Aversion therapy for alcoholism is based on the notion that aversion conditioning produces a conditioned response (CR) to alcohol that is antagonistic to subsequent alcohol ingestion. This study reports the first experimental evidence that aversion conditioning produces a CR to the taste and smell of alcohol. Two patients were given taste aversion therapy for alcoholism. While medically conservative, the taste-aversion procedures produced profound malaise and reliable emesis shortly after patients began drinking alcoholic beverages. Behavioral. attitudinal and psychophysiological indices all reflected the acquisition of an alcohol aversion as a function of conditioning. © 1979.