The Use of Behavior Therapy in Psychological Disorders Resulting in Physical Illness (Psychosomatic Illnesses) Behavior therapy treats a variety of psychological disorders whose primary feature is a physical problem. Psychological factors and physical

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The Use of Behavior Therapy in Psychological
Disorders Resulting in Physical Illness
(Psychosomatic Illnesses)Behavior therapy treats
a variety of psychological disorders whose
primary feature is a physical problem.
Psychological factors and physical problems
influence each other reciprocally.
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1 Enuresis The urine alarm is an efficient and
effective treatment of enuresis. An alarm is
activated when urine comes in contact with a
special pad in the child's underpants or under
the bed sheet. Through repeated pairings of the
alarm and bladder tension, bladder tension alone
comes to awaken the child before urination
starts.
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2. Tics Behavioral treatments for tics include
massed negative practice (deliberately performing
the tic as rapidly as possible), changing
maintaining consequences, relaxation training,
and self-monitoring. Habit reversal, the most
effective treatment, incorporates four
components awareness training, relaxation
training, competing response training, and
reinforcement. Awareness training and competing
response training are the critical components.
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3. Insomnia When infant and toddler sleep
problems are maintained by parental attention,
extinction, involving withholding attention for
nighttime crying. It is a simple, effective
treatment. Modified forms of extinction are more
acceptable to parents but somewhat less
effective.
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3. Insomnia For adult insomnia, stimulus
control procedures establish a client's being in
bed as a clear-cut cue only for sleeping.
Relaxation training helps clients reduce muscle
tension associated with insomnia prior to going
to bed. Cognitive restructuring reduces worry
about sleeping by identifying, challenging, and
replacing maladaptive beliefs about sleep with
adaptive cognitions. Treatment packages
involving stimulus control, relaxation training,
cognitive restructuring, sleep restriction, and
sleep education for insomnia are appropriate when
a client's sleeping problems are the result of
multiple maintaining conditions.
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4. Bulimia The treatment of choice for bulimia
is a comprehensive cognitive-behavioral treatment
package that includes self-monitoring, stimulus
control, activity scheduling, cognitive
restructuring, collaborative empiricism, problem
solving, flooding, and relapse prevention. The
treatment package reduces binge eating and
purging and improves self-image, self-esteem,
depression, and social functioning.
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5. Addictive behaviors Behavioral treatments of
addictive behaviors include aversion therapy, cue
exposure, and consequential therapies. Aversion
therapy pairs the addictive behavior with an
aversive stimulus to discourage engaging in it.
Cue exposure involves exposing the client to cues
associated with the addictive behavior and
preventing the client from engaging in the
addictive behavior. Consequential therapies use
reinforcers for abstaining from addictive
behaviors and response cost for engaging in
addictive behaviors.
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5. Addictive behaviors Relapse prevention is a
cognitive-behavioral treatment package that
prepares clients who engage in addictive
behaviors for future relapses by having them
identify high-risk situations develop coping
skills practice the coping skills before they
are needed and develop a balanced lifestyle.
Relapse prevention also may prove to be a general
procedure for increasing the long-term
maintenance of treatment gains with diverse
problem behaviors.
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The Use of Behavior Therapy in Psychological
Disorders Resulting in Physical Illness
(Psychosomatic Illnesses)Behavior therapy treats
a variety of psychological disorders whose
primary feature is a physical problem.
Psychological factors and physical problems
influence each other reciprocally.