Describe and Evaluate at Least One Psychological Treatment for Substance Abuse.

Describe and evaluate at least one psychological treatment for substance abuse.

When a person becomes addicted to a substance it is important for them to have an effective treatment to reduce their usage of the substance. Addiction is a behaviour over which an individual has impaired control with harmful consequences. It is based on a pathological need for a substance. Treatments are important because an addiction increases the risk of health and social problems for the individual, and when they form a dependence on a substance it is harder to reduce the behaviour. This is because dependence is manifested at both emotional and cognitive thought levels, which means that the drug becomes an essential part of the person’s life and it will control or determine many of their daily activities. There are two main Treatments to consider using to reduce substance abuse; these are Aversion Therapy and Self-Management Strategies.

Aversion Therapy is based on the behaviourist principle that all behaviour is learnt from environmental consequences and association through classical and operant conditioning. Aversion therapy uses classical conditioning to treat its clients; this is based on the idea that if all behaviour is learnt, it can then be unlearnt or extinguished. Most commonly an emetic is used to make the client sick this is the unconditioned stimulus and response. This is then mixed with the substance and causes the client an unpleasant experience encountering nauseous feelings when taking the substance. This is the conditioned stimulus and response. The client will associate the substance will this feeling in the future. An example of this is Wiens and Menustik’s study to explore the effectiveness of aversion therapy on alcohol with the use of an emetic. His study however showed that the success rate is not very high and that some people relapse. To be successful the client needs to be motivated to give up the substance, and needs social support for withdrawal...