Stimulus control

The primary aim of behavior modification is to help patients choose lifestyles conducive to safe and sustained weight loss. Behavioral therapy is based on principles of human learning, which use stimulus control and reinforcement to substitute desirable for learned, undesirable behavior. 

Behavioral and educational interventions that may help include shortterm cognitive behavioral therapy, relaxation therapy, stimulus control therapy, cognitive therapy, sleep restriction, paradoxical intention, and sleep hygiene education (Table 72-3). 

Schwarz, K.S. and Cunningham, C.L., Conditioned stimulus control of morphine hyperther-... 

Stimulus control should be used instead of cue exposure whenever possible. True or False ... 

In addition, stimulus-control and cue-exposure techniques (see Chapter 5) can be used effectively as relapse prevention strategies. Stimulus control means that the client learns how to control her or his level of exposure, and under what conditions, to a particular cue that had been associated with drug use. Cue exposure, as you may remember, uses exposure and response-prevention strategies in session to reduce the power of a drug-use cue to trigger cravings or urges to use. 

The overall aim of such stimulus control procedures can be summarized in the old maxim Out of sight, out of mind. ... 

Self-attack. When clients belittle themselves or put themselves down because of frustration or disappointment. This often occurs during a GVE or AVE. Stimulus control. A strategy to control or limit exposure to a trigger or cue. Substitute indulgences. Safe alternatives to drug use that reward the client for doing well in recovery. 

In contrast, some animal studies have suggested that female rats have an increased sensitivity to nicotine althongh these have assessed acnte antinociceptive effects and decreases in motor activity (e.g. Cronan et al. 1985 Craft and Milholland 1998) or chronic increases in locomotion (Kanyt et al. 1999). However, female mice of three strains were reported to be less sensitive than males to motor depressant effects of nicotine (Hatchell and Collins 1977). Gonadal hormones have been suggested to play a part in stimulus control as responses to nicotine during ethanol withdrawal were lower in intact females compared with ovariectomised females and males (Jung et al. 2000). 

Acute Phase Treatment. Hypnotic medications are useful for short-term treatment of insomnia, but they should always be accompanied by behavioral and psychoeducational treatments, including a review of good sleep hygiene practices. It may also include more aggressive measures such as relaxation training, sleep restriction therapy, and stimulus control therapy. 

Burghardt, G. M. (1966). Stimulus control of the prey attack response in naive garter snakes. PsychonomicScience4,37-38. 

The ontogeny, evolution, and stimulus control of feeding in humans and reptiles. The Chemical Senses and Nutrition, ed. M. R. Rare and 0. Mailer, pp. 253-275. In New York Academic Press. 

Chiszar, D., Kandler, K., Lee, R., and Smith, H. M. (1988b). Stimulus control of predatory attack in the brown tree snake, Boiga irregularis. 2. Use of chemical cues during foraging. Ampfete-RepftZw 9,77-88. 

Control of attention. People may keep the opportunity to behave impulsively out of sight of out of mind, so that they cannot receive or process the information that the inferior reward is at hand. For instance, an overeater may keep food out of sight or keep busy so as not to think about food. Behaviour therapists have referred to similar activities as stimulus control (Kanfer and Phillips 1970 Goldiamond 1965), and psychoanalysts have called them suppression, repression or denial. 

Insomnia can also be treated without medication. This type of treatment is called a behavioral treatment or modification since it is meant to modify the behavior of the insomnia sufferer. One commonly used behavioral treatment is called stimulus control the person stops doing non-sleep-related activities in bed, such as writing a letter, talking on the phone, studying, or playing computer games. When these types of... 

Two meta-analyses on the efficacy of nonpharmacological interventions for insomnia have shown that SRT produces, along with stimulus control therapy, among the largest effect sizes on sleep onset latency and wake after sleep onset variables (3,4). However, SRT alone has been evaluated in significantly fewer studies than other interventions. Furthermore, results from meta-analyses have also shown that SRT produces a reduction of TST, particularly at posttreatment, with a rebound/gain at short-term follow-ups. Three treatment studies of late-life insomnia have directly compared the relative efficacy of SRT to other nonphar-... 

Anderson MW, Zendell SM, Rosa DP, Rubinstein ML, Herrera CO, Simons O, Caruso L, Spielman AJ. Comparison of sleep restriction therapy and stimulus control in older insomniacs an update. Sleep Res 1988 17 141. 

Hoelscher TJ, Edinger JD. Treatment of sleep-maintenance insomnia in older adults Sleep period reduction, sleep education, and modified stimulus control. Psychol Aging 1988 3 258-263. 

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