1-Step Program

MOSCOW -- In the last 20 years, hundreds of thousands of people in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union have been "coded" against the desire to drink. "Coding" involves the manipulation of the alcoholic's psyche--often with the help of hypnosis--to create the belief that alcohol equals death.

Alcohol abuse, marked by binge drinking, has soared to all-time highs in Russia. More than 50,000 people die annually from alcohol poisoning, compared with about 400 annually in the United States. It is not unusual for Russians to consume one or more bottles of vodka at a single sitting.

For many Russians, the only available treatment is "coding", created by a Soviet psychiatrist, Alexander Dovzhenko, who assumed cult-like status in the treatment of alcoholism.

"The Dovzhenko method is basically a form of hypnosis: You drink, you die," said Andrei Yermoshin, a private psychotherapist who no longer uses the method, preferring long-term therapy. "It's fast and cheap, and supposedly you don't have a problem for a year or two years or five years, depending on how long you have been coded for."