Understanding and Reacting to Relapse: Considerations for Practitioners

The Need to Distinguish between "Lapse" and "Relapse"

Over the last decade, behavior analysts have become increasingly interested in relapse and have used the term to describe the reemergence of problem behavior following successful reductions achieved during clinical intervention. Nonetheless, some elements of the current terminology may interfere with behavior analysts' efforts to examine, predict, and mitigate the conditions that lead to the reemergence of severe problem behavior in clinical settings. The current article (1) describes how the term "relapse" has been used in the field of behavior analysis and fails to capture more nuanced effects observed in the reemergence of problem behavior; (2) suggests use of the terms "lapse" and "relapse" to capture these distinct effects; and (3) outlines the positive impact enhanced technological distinction between the concept of "lapse" and "relapse" could have on clinical research and practice.