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Dependence, relapse and extinction: A theoretical critique and a behavioral examination
Author(s) -
Litman Gloria K.,
Eiser J. Richard,
Taylor Colin
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/1097-4679(197901)35:1<192::aid-jclp2270350131>3.0.co;2-r
Subject(s) - extinction (optical mineralogy) , psychology , heavy drinking , relapse prevention , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , injury prevention , poison control , medicine , medical emergency , paleontology , biology
Re‐examines the “decay of extinction” notion proposed by Hunt and Matarazzo (1970) to account for relapse in the treatment of alcoholism and dependence disorders. The attempt to reduce complex relapse behaviors to a simple curve is criticized both from the point of view of using group data to describe an individual process and the nature of cumulative data itself. Because individual differences are marked, a simple group curve cannot describe the process of relapse. A behavioral examination then is presented, based on records of the drinking behavior of 79 alcoholics over a 12‐month period after treatment. The main finding is that there are marked individual differences in the process of relapse. Furthermore, the frequency of heavy drinking seems to be most related to a pattern of drinking characterized by marked month‐to‐month variation in the frequency of heavy drinking rather than a more stable pattern.