ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses treatment approaches to the problem of conditioned nausea and vomiting resulting from cancer chemotherapy. It also discusses the treatment of conditioned nausea and vomiting by pharmacological means. The chapter reviews behavioral treatments that have been used to ameliorate these problems in adult and pediatric patients. It focuses on important but unanswered questions regarding the development and practical implementation of effective treatment techniques, and recommends possible approaches to answering these questions. Antianxiety and antiemetic medications were the first treatments used to alleviate chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting. The absence of a nontoxic and completely effective antiemetic agent for the reduction of chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting has encouraged researchers to explore the usefulness of behavioral strategies for the amelioration of these problems. Systematic desensitization is a counterconditioning procedure that is most commonly used to train phobic individuals to overcome their fears.
