Behavioral Assessment and Treatment of Aerophagia

Abstract

Aerophagia is characterized by excessive air swallowing and can have serious negative effects on one’s health. We present the assessment and treatment of a 16-year-old girl, Khloe, with developmental disabilities and aerophagia. The initial assessment indicated that aerophagia occurred primarily to access attention in a divided attention context; however, our function-based treatment did not result in a clinically significant reduction in problem behavior. We then conducted a second assessment that indicated that Khloe’s aerophagia indeed occurred primarily in a divided attention context, but that it persisted independent of social consequences. We concluded that the divided attention context served as a motivating variable for aerophagia. Our second treatment consisted of differential reinforcement of other behavior, noncontingent access to competing stimuli, and graduated exposure to contextual variables (i.e., people and divided attention) that occasioned aerophagia. The treatment was successful in reducing rates of aerophagia. We discuss implications for assessment and treatment, as well as recommendations for clinicians and students.

A Competing Stimuli Intervention Package to Treat Automatically Reinforced Destructive Behavior

“…Research has shown the utility of competing stimuli for treating some harmful automatically reinforced behavior such as self-injurious behavior and aerophagia (e.g., Cavalari et al, 2014; Cengher & Strohmeier, 2021). Cavalari et al (2014) assessed and treated the chronic skin picking of a 17-year-old female with autism in a school setting.…”

“…More recently, Cengher and Strohmeier (2021) assessed and treated aerophagia in a 16-year-old female diagnosed with autism, seizure disorder, intellectual disability, and disruptive behavior disorder. A functional analysis determined that aerophagia was occasioned by two adults engaging in conversation with attention removed from her, but ultimately persisted due to nonsocial consequences (i.e., automatic reinforcement).…”

Optimized Extraction of Polyphenols from Unconventional Edible Plants: LC-MS/MS Profiling of Polyphenols, Biological Functions, Molecular Docking, and Pharmacokinetics Study

“…Moringa ( Moringa oleifera ) is used in herbal medicine and, as fresh leaves, a flavoring agent in many foods and beverages, and possesses cytotoxic and antibacterial properties [ 6 ]. Moringa is also a good source of antioxidant metabolites [ 7 ], used for gastric acidity treatment [ 8 , 9 ] aerophobia [ 10 , 11 ], nausea [ 12 , 13 ] vomiting, pharyngitis, liver issues, anorexia, stomach aches, etc. [ 14 , 15 ].…”