Behavioral treatments and pharmacotherapy: acceptability ratings by elderly individuals in residential settings

We presented residents of a life care community and several nursing homes with written scenarios depicting a 75-year-old woman with a behavior problem. The client in the case varied by cognitive capacity (impaired or intact) and behavior problem (aggression, verbal abuse, or noncompliance). Participants rated three treatments with Kazdin's (1980) Treatment Evaluation Inventory: differential reinforcement of incompatible behavior (DRI), time-out, and haloperidol. All treatments were considered acceptable, and DRI was rated the most acceptable. Ratings for haloperidol and time-out varied by whether the case client was described as demented.