Toilet Retraining Psychogeriatric Residents

Abstract

The toilet-training package arranged by Azrin and Foxx has been modified and utilized to retrain the incontinent residents of a psychogeriatric ward. Two A-B-A-B single subject experiments are reported. Patient 1 was a 60-year-old enuretic, and Patient 2 a 77-year-old encopretic; they were both totally incontinent for more than two years. Accidents and self-initiated toileting have been continuously recorded during a 21-day period and an 8-week follow-up. In the treatment conditions the subjects were given specified items of the toilet-training program; spontaneous toileting behavior was reinforced on a CRF/VI basis. In the reversal conditions, patients were given the same socializing activities, but reinforcers, social attention, and so on were randomly scheduled. Results suggest that the procedure is effective in retraining deteriorated and aged patients; contingent reinforcement is also a necessary component of the treatment package.