Periodic or binge drinking presents special problems in clinical assessment and treatment. The following case is somewhat unusual in that the majority of reports of behavioral treatments focus on alcoholics whose drinking is fairly continuous. There are, however, a category of alcohol abusers who exhibit brief binge-drinking episodes interspersed with periods of either moderate alcohol intake or complete abstinence. These cases do not easily fit into the traditional diagnostic classifications. For example, the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 1980) describes three main patterns of chronic pathological alcohol use: (1) regular daily intake of large amounts, (2) regular heavy drinking limited to weekends, and (3) long periods of sobriety interspersed with binges of daily heavy drinking lasting for weeks or months. In the present case excessive drinking occurred only under one circumscribed situation (during business trips), on a very irregular basis (i.e., during only some business trips), and with a brief duration (1 to 5 days). This brief episodic drinking pattern, which is highly situationally specific, has been noted in successful, hard-driving business executives who travel a great deal in their jobs (Miller, 1976). These problem drinkers present unique treatment difficulties.