John S. O'Brien

An experimental analysis of the behavior of alcoholics and nonalcoholics during prolonged experimental drinking: A necessary precursor of behavior therapy?

The social, affective, and drinking behavior of four skid-row alcoholics and four matched nonalcoholics was observed during two identical 33-day studies. In each study, an 18-day drinking period followed a 9-day predrinking period and preceded a 6-day post-drinking period. The studies were also divided into alternating 3-day socialization and interpersonal isolation periods. Points earned for operant responding “bought” 86-proof bourbon whiskey and/or “relief from isolation” at specified times. Results were: (a) though both alcoholics and nonalcoholics reached the same high blood alcohol levels early in drinking, the alcoholics remained at these levels longer and returned to them more frequently. Hence, they drank almost twice as much as the nonalcoholics; (b) alcoholics began drinking with a 3- to 5-day “spree,” followed by a longer “maintenance” drinking period; nonalcoholics were only “maintenance” drinkers; (c) unlike nonalcoholics, alcoholics were social isolates before, during, and after drinking; (d) alcoholics became significantly more depressed and less active and demonstrated significantly more psychopathology than nonalcoholics once drinking began. Discussion of these findings centers on their relevance to the continued development of new, more effective, behavioral approaches to the treatment of alcoholism.

An operant reinforcement system to improve ward behavior in in-patient drug addicts.

Abstract The application of a reinforcement system by which conformity to stated rules was rewarded to a drug addict population resulted in a substantial increase in the frequency of patients complying to rules and in patient involvement in ward planning. Private conversations of patients discussing drug usage decreased and public discussion of different content became more frequent. Although at first staff attitudes were generally skeptical, they changed on finding the system effective.

The counterconditioning of a vomiting habit by sips of ginger ale

Abstract A 60-yr-old woman had been vomiting for a 6-week period following an acute myocardial infarction. Medical investigation yielded no organic cause for the vomiting which, on psychiatric evaluation, was found to be a conditioned response to stimuli from the depression that had started very shortly before the onset of the infarction. The conditioned vomiting was counter-conditioned by the use of small doses of ginger ale producing forward peristalsis. The depression was treated by the introduction of behaviors incompatible with the depression. At a 5-month follow-up, the patient remained free of vomiting and the depression had ameliorated.