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CONTROL OF CIGARETTE HABIT BY PSYCHOLOGICAL AVERSIVE CONDITIONING: CLINICAL EVALUATION IN 53 SMOKERS
Author(s) -
OCHSNER ALTON,
DAMRAU FREDERIC
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1970.tb03667.x
Subject(s) - medicine , habit , abstinence , conditioning , cigarette smoking , test (biology) , psychiatry , social psychology , psychology , paleontology , statistics , mathematics , biology
A bstract : In a group of 53 smokers, the aversive conditioning method of controlling the cigarette habit by means of an educational pamphlet containing corresponding daily references to the evils of tobacco proved highly successful in a three‐week test period. Results were rated as excellent in 34 cases (64 per cent), good in 11 cases (21 per cent), fair in 5 cases (9 per cent), and poor in 3 cases (6 per cent). Twenty participants (38 per cent) stopped smoking entirely and 9 others (17 per cent) reduced their cigarette consumption to one or less per day. Forty‐five participants (85 per cent) smoked less than half as much as before. Many smokers who reduced their cigarette consumption substantially during the test period gradually tapered it off to complete abstinence.