Punishment of self-injurious behavior using aromatic ammonia as the aversive stimulus.

Researchers tested aromatic ammonia as a punisher for self-injury in one adult with autism. They used an ABAB reversal design. Sessions took place in a treatment room with staff present.

The ammonia puffs stopped the self-hitting almost right away. When they removed the ammonia, the hitting came back. On the ward, the behavior returned unless staff kept the ammonia ready.

Wallander et al. (1983) repeated the same setup with aggression instead of self-injury and saw the same fast stop, plus good effects still there 14 months later. Adams (1980) used ammonia on hair-pulling after other plans failed and also got quick suppression. Reynolds (1968) saw the same generalization trap with shock: big session gains, but the behavior stayed put in new places. Feinstein et al. (1988) took a different road; they first asked why the child hit and then picked a treatment that matched the reason. Their function-based plan worked without any punisher.

Ammonia can give you rapid relief when safety is on the line, but the effect sticks only where the contingency lives. If you use it, build a hand-off plan so the ammonia or another punisher travels with the client. Better yet, run a quick functional analysis first; a reinforcer-based fix may give you the same drop in pain without the side-effects.