Six- and twelve-month abstinence rates in inpatient alcoholics treated with either faradic aversion or chemical aversion compared with matched inpatients from a treatment registry.

Two hundred forty-nine patients who were treated for alcoholism in an inpatient multimodal treatment program that included aversion therapy were matched post hoc on 17 baseline variables with patients from a national treatment outcome registry. The latter patients received inpatient treatment that emphasized individual and group counseling as the primary therapeutic elements but did not include aversion therapy for alcohol. Six- and 12-month abstinence rates from alcohol and all mood-altering chemicals are reported. The patients treated with aversion therapy for alcohol had higher alcohol abstinence rates at 6 and 12 months (p < 0.01). The abstinence rates from all mood-altering chemicals were higher in the aversion group at 6 months (p < 0.05) but not at 12 months. These comparisons pooled faradic aversion and chemical aversion results. In order to determine whether or not the faradic aversion gave comparable results to the chemical aversion, the two groups were separately analyzed. No significant differences in outcome were found. In fact, the faradic aversion group showed a slight (nonsignificant) increase in abstinence rate.