Therapeutic shock device (TSD): clinical evaluation with self-injurious behaviors

A man with profound mental retardation and multiple topographies of severe self-injurious behavior (SIB) had been receiving contingent shock for SIB for 2 years before the study started. Shock was being delivered with a handheld shock stick (Hot Shot Sabre Six), which produced burns to the man's skin. SIB rate, without a shock contingency, was 10 responses/min. The Therapeutic Shock Device (TSD), worn by the client and remotely operated by a radio frequency signal, provided superior control of SIB (0.02 responses/min) compared with the shock stick (0.06 responses/min) without causing tissue damage. TSD treatment was introduced in a mixed multiple baseline design across times, settings, and behaviors. The client did not appear to find the TSD aversive. To the contrary, his behaviors indicated that he preferred to wear it. The TSD appeared to provide a substitute for restraint, the hypothesized reinforcer for the man's most frequent form of SIB.