The Evolution of Addiction

This week, I focused a majority of my research time to reading a book written by my interviewee, William White. The book, titled Slaying the Dragon: The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America, gives a very detailed account of the societal and political evolution of addiction and alcoholism, all the way from the late 1700s to modern day America.

What I found the most interesting after all of my reading was that as decades passed, social and political action against alcoholism, and more so, addiction, did not improve, but actually worsened. Even as recently as 1978, Dr. Sheldon Zimberg noted that "'physicians, psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals have been ineffective in the treatment of [addicts and alcoholics] and have lost interest in attempting to treat them'" (qtd. White 99). This disinterest in treatment coming from the physicians, accompanied by the government's extreme drug criminalization that was "driven by fear" (White 114), further ostracized alcoholics, and again, more so, addicts.

While this situation was bleak, the 20th century did come up with many different treatment techniques, some of which worked and some of which didn't. One of the most successful treatment methods was called "Aversion Therapy," which after being the strongest method for 60 years, paved the way for new approaches and treatments to be developed later in the 20th century. When in Aversion Therapy, the patient would be placed in a room void of anything except for a couple bottles of alcohol, a glass, and themselves. The patient was then giving a vomit-inducing drug so that when the patient drank the alcohol, the immediate reaction was to vomit. Additionally, administrators took great care to ensure that no positive feelings of intoxication reached the patient. So the patient would be in this room, alone with their thoughts, alcohol, and nausea. After repeating this for a set number of days, and repeated over a set number of months, the patient would naturally associate drinking with nausea and vomiting, which, in theory, cures the alcoholism.

While seemingly painful, this method yielded outstanding results. When followed-up with in the 1940s, aversion therapy patients reported recovery rates from 45% to 60%, substantially above the recovery rates for any other method in history. In his book, White mentions that this is likely because "all of the patients were voluntary and committed to the goal of permanently eliminating alcohol from their lives" (White 107), where in other methods, patients were often forced by family members or law officials.

Even though this is only the tip of the iceberg in the extensive history of addiction and alcoholism in America, it was a very interesting start, and I am intrigued to learn more as I continue to work on my Junior Theme.