Using Arousal Suppression Exercises to Decrease Inappropriate Sexual Arousal in Detained Adolescent Males: Three Clinical Demonstrations.

Reyes, Vollmer, and Hall (2011) found that 2 arousal suppression strategies, 1 of which involved counting backward from 100 to 0, decreased sexual arousal for 2 male sex offenders with intellectual disabilities. In the current clinical study, we taught 3 adolescent males who had been adjudicated for illegal sexual behavior to self-report arousal when they were presented with sexually arousing visual stimuli. Based on the procedures in the Reyes et al. (2011) study, we taught participants to count backward from 100 to 0 when they verbally reported a criterion level of sexual arousal in the presence of visual media. Subsequently, we gradually faded therapists' instructions for 2 participants until they independently used the arousal suppression exercise. Results showed that each participant's self-reported sexual arousal decreased upon implementation of treatment relative to baseline. Decreased sexual arousal continued even under conditions of faded therapist instructions for 2 participants. The relative merits of using self-report measures are discussed.