An aversive treatment for addicted cigarette smokers: Preliminary report.

An aversive stimulus (electric shock) was paired with cigarette smoking in two groups of addicted smokers. In one group (E) the shock was made increasingly painful, in the other group (C) it was subliminal. In both groups shock was terminated when S put out his cigarette. Treatment was given in one session, with an average of 10 smoking-shock pairings per S. On 25% of trials shock was omitted. The treatment greatly reduced smoking in group E (9 Ss) but not in group C (4 Ss), and therefore has promise for the treatment of heavy smokers. Some subsidiary effects of the treatment were also noticed. More than two years after treatment there was evidence of reduced rates in some E group subjects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)