Treatment method aimed at reducing or eliminating unwanted behaviors through painful or unpleasant experiences: Goals, instances, and debates
Aversion therapy, also known as "aversive conditioning" or "deterrent therapy," is an outdated strategy used to curb undesirable behaviors. This method involves repeatedly linking an unpleasant experience to an undesirable behavior or habit, with the goal of discouraging it. This treatment has been primarily applied to address addiction-related issues, such as smoking, alcohol use disorder (AUD), and gambling addiction.
However, it's essential to note that aversion therapy is less common than other treatment methods for substance use disorders and has faced controversy since its inception. Questions linger about its long-term effectiveness as a treatment for substance use disorders.
The principle behind aversion therapy is simple: if an activity causes discomfort, individuals will be less inclined to engage in it. Here are some examples of aversion therapy:
- Emetic counter conditioning: Involves inducing nausea and vomiting in patients with AUD while they consume alcoholic beverages. The idea is that associating drinking alcohol with the unpleasant feeling of nausea and vomiting will deter them from continue drinking.
- Graphic warning labels: These are commonly found on cigarette packages worldwide. They showcase disturbing images of the potential health consequences of smoking, pairing the act of smoking with the unpleasant experience of viewing upsetting imagery.
- Rapid smoking: In this method, individuals puff on a cigarette rapidly to trigger unpleasant sensations that make continued smoking unbearable, aiming to reduce nicotine dependence.
- Rubber band aversion therapy: This form of treatment is used for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). People wear a rubber band around their wrist and snap it whenever they have an obsessive thought. The goal is to associate obsessive thoughts with physical pain, thereby reducing the occurrence of such thoughts.
While some studies suggest that aversion therapy can decrease addictive behaviors temporarily, its long-term effectiveness remains uncertain. For instance, a small study from 2017 investigated the effects of ECC on alcohol-related brain activity in 13 people with AUD. The participants reported alcohol aversion or avoidance at 30 and 90 days after treatment, with 69% of participants still sober 12 months later. Brain scans taken before and after the treatment showed significant reductions in craving-related brain activity. However, these findings are not consistent across all studies, and the long-term outcomes remain unclear.
Some mental health professionals view aversion therapy as unethical due to its punitive nature, causing psychological distress or physical pain. The practice of conversion therapy, a form of aversion therapy aimed at "converting" homosexuality to heterosexuality, was controversially used to treat homosexuality until it was declassified as a mental health disorder.
In conclusion, aversion therapy involves repeatedly linking unpleasant experiences to undesirable behaviors to discourage them. Although it can show short-term effectiveness, its long-term benefits are questionable, and its ethical concerns have limited its popularity as a primary treatment. Instead, experts recommend integrating aversion therapy within broader, multi-faceted treatment plans for substance use disorders to improve lasting recovery outcomes.
- Aversion therapy, often referred to as "aversive conditioning" or "deterrent therapy," is an old strategy aimed at curbing undesirable behaviors, such as alcohol use disorder (AUD), by linking those behaviors to unpleasant experiences.
- This treatment, while showing temporary decreases in addictive behaviors, has unclear long-term effectiveness, as evidenced by the inconsistent findings across studies.
- For instance, a 2017 study showed that Emetic Counter Conditioning (ECC) could lead to alcohol aversion or avoidance for 69% of participants 12 months after treatment, but the long-term outcomes remain unclear.
- Some mental health professionals view aversion therapy as unethical due to its punitive nature, causing psychological distress or physical pain, such as in the controversial use of conversion therapy to treat homosexuality.
- In the field of health-and-wellness, mental-health, and therapies-and-treatments, experts recommend integrating aversion therapy within broader, multi-faceted treatment plans to ensure lasting recovery outcomes.
- In 2022, the ethical concerns and questionable long-term benefits of aversion therapy may position alternative medicine strategies, like mindfulness and cognitive-behavioral therapies, as more favorable for addressing substance use disorders.
- While aversion therapy, as denoted by the code c3d16e809e91cb1e4cf4d572e3a72cc7, has played a role in the history of psychology and psychiatry, its limited application and controversy make it less common compared to other treatment methods in health-and-wellness and mental-health contexts.
