Aversion therapy has been used for many years in the treatment of alcoholism (3). Apomorphine and emetine are the usual drugs used as the unconditioned stimuli for nausea and vomiting, with alcohol as the conditioned stimulus. More recently the same procedure has been used in the treatment of sexual perversions-for example, fetishism (12), transvestism (I, 5) and homosexuality (II, 7) . There are several disadvantages to the use of drugs in conditioning procedures. The time between the stimulus being presented and the nausea being produced is uncertain (2). The patient may not even feel nausea; and, further, the cerebral depressant effect of the drug may interfere with the patient's ability to form conditioned responses (4). In addition, the treatment may have to be terminated prematurely because of its dangerous side-effects. Alternative unpleasant responses can be used to produce aversion. In experimental psychology electric shock has been widely, used both in animals and in humans (13). In clinical treatment, however, it has been less often used (8; 10; 14, p. 182). The technique is simpler, more accurately controlled, and more certain in producing an unpleasant effect than drugs. This article describes a simple apparatus designed by one of us (R. J. MeG.) and its use in the aversive treatment of sexual perversions, alcoholism, smoking, and neurotic symptoms. (McGuire and Vallance 1964, 178)
References
McGuire, Ralph J., and Maelor Vallance. 1964. “Aversion Therapy by Electric Shock: A Simple Technique.” In Conditioning Techniques in Clinical Practice and Research, edited by Cyril M. Franks, 178–85. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-39876-0_16.