A quasi-experimental study on the effect of electrical aversion treatment on imposed mechanical restraint for severe self-injurious behavior

• Published in: Research in developmental disabilities Vol. 21; no. 4; pp. 235 - 242
• Main Authors: Duker, Pieter C, Seys, Daniel M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Elsevier Ltd 01.07.2000; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aversion Therapy; Avoidance Learning; Behavior Modification; Biological and medical sciences; Electric Stimulation Therapy; Female; Humans; Intellectual Disability - complications; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Miscellaneous; Outcomes of Treatment; Physical Restraints; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Punishment; Restraint, Physical; Self Injurious Behavior; Self-Injurious Behavior - therapy; Severe Mental Retardation; Severity of Illness Index; Therapy; Treatment Outcome; Treatments; Human; Self injury; Electrical treatment; Treatment efficiency; Developmental disorder; Mental retardation; Symptomatology; Treatment; Follow up study; Young adult; Intellectual deficiency; Adult; Restraint; Conditioned aversion; Severe; Comparative study
• ISSN: 0891-4222; 1873-3379
• DOI: 10.1016/S0891-4222(00)00039-1

Eight individuals with mental retardation and imposed mechanical restraints due to severe, life-threatening self-injurious behavior received electrical aversive treatment. Eight other individuals, who had been matched with the treatment group in terms of the degree of imposed mechanical restraint due to the above problem behavior, had not received electrical aversion treatment. A comparison of imposed mechanical restraint scores, as a measure of severity of self-injurious behavior, between both groups over a period of three years, revealed that electrical aversion treatment significantly reduces the degree of imposed mechanical restraint.