THE BEHAVIORAL TREATMENT OF AUDITORY HALLUCINATORY RESPONDING OF A SCHIZOPHRENIC PATIENT

This study assessed the efficacy of a behaviorally based treatment pac kage to decrease the frequency of verbal responding to auditory halluc inations and to increase attention to important external stimuli, rath er than to the hallucinations. The subject, a 49-year-old male, with a 20-year history of auditory hallucinatory responding (AHR), laughing and talking to himself, was seen in an outpatient clinic. Observations were made during management skill training, given usually twice a wee k. Observation sessions were divided into 15-minute intervals. The int ervention package included reinforcement in the form of praise, pats o n the back, and token reinforcement contingent on the absence of audit ory hallucinations. Cancellation tests were given to measure his abili ty to attend to external tasks. Using an ABCAD design, it was seen tha t the data indicated that the intervention resulted in both a sharp de crease in auditory hallucinations and an increase in the subject's abi lity to attend to external tasks. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd