Aversive therapies for substance abuse: do they work?

More than two decades of research in the use of aversive behavioral interventions for the treatment of drug and alcohol abuse is reviewed. This survey covers only the areas of conditioned aversive states (using chemical or electrical stimuli) and extinction/desensitization. While many of these treatment interventions hold promise, none has been fully explored with properly controlled group studies. Suggestions are offered which may aid in the evaluation of behavioral interventions for substance abuse and increase the clinical impact of this work.