Satiation in the treatment of inappropriate fire setting.

This paper concerns the treatment of a 7-yr-old boy, who exhibited multiple behavioral disorders, and was treated in a residential setting for inappropriate fire setting by a satiation procedure. Throughout treatment the number of adult interventions at home to "correct him about fire" were recorded. Treatment consisted of 100 30-min sessions in the residential setting during which he was free to light as many matches as he wished. Contrary to earlier studies, the number of matches lit per therapy session did not decrease. However, the number of "corrections about fire" at home completely ceased midway through treatment, and did not recur through the 24-month follow-up period.