Issues in Treatment Efficacy Research with Alcoholics

Abstract

A variety of therapeutic strategies have been used in the treatment of alcoholic patients. Within this context, behavioral techniques have been widely employed with varying degree of effectiveness. This paper attempts to explore theoretically 2 widely used behavioral therapeutic methods, systematic desensitization and covert sensitization, along with traditional insight-oriented therapy. Possible merits and limitations of applying these treatment approaches to alcoholic patients are explored.

Contingency Contracting and Systematic Desensitization for Heroin Addicts in Methadone Maintenance Programs

“…Logically, these anxiety-producing situations would be included in the hierarchy of imagined scenes in systematic desensitization for the recovering heroin addict. In a case study involving systematic desensitization in an alcoholic, the hierarchy included anxieties that had a tem poral relationship to the drinking response-external cues such as passing a bar, anxieties about riding a bus and ten sion in a job interview (Piorkowski & Mann 1975). This type of behavior modification " ... suits the cultural back ground of the addicts" (Cheek et al 1973: 994).…”