Moderate Drinking by Chronic Alcoholics a Schedule-Dependent Phenomenon

Healthy chronic alcoholics were hospitalized and given access to substantial quantities of ethanol in an effort to limit their drinking by the application of contingency-management procedures. Two experiments were designed to determine conditions under which moderate drinking could be maintained for 5 days in succession. The reinforcer for moderation was participation in an enriched environment. Excessive drinking resulted in the subject's withdrawal from this environment. The first experiment demonstrated that moderate drinking could be maintained by this strategy. The question arose then whether drinking during the noncontingent weeks occurred because of the absence of contingencies or whether it resulted from the aversive nature of the impoverished environment in which the subjects were required to live. The second experiment demonstrated that it was the absence of reinforcement contingencies for moderation, rather than living in an impoverished environment, which resulted in excessive drinking. These results are discussed in relation to the feasibility of moderate drinking as a therapeutic goal for the chronic alcoholic and contingencies which might be used to manage alcoholism.