Family Therapy (psychological)

Question 1

What is family therapy?

Answer 1

• form of psychotherapy involving the whole family
• lasts approx. 9 months to 1 year (10 sessions)
• NICE recommend it is offered to all sz patients who live/are in close contact with family

Question 2

What does NICE stand for?

Answer 2

National Institute for HealthCare Excellence

Question 3

What does family therapy involve?

Answer 3

• therapist talks openly about symptoms, behaviour, treatments to all family members
• no information remains confidential - informed consent is important
• encourages support for one another
• used alongside anti-psychotic drugs

Question 4

What are the aims of family therapy?

Answer 4

• lowers expressed emotion (EE)
• decreases criticism and family guilt
• reduces relapse rates
• reduced sz symptoms
• improves positive communication
• increases formation of alliances

Question 5

Evaluate family therapy.

Answer 5

(+) economic benefits - NICE found reduction in relapse rates when used with drugs

(+) Lobban (2013) looked at 50 studies, 60% reported significant positive impacts

(+)/(-) useful for sz patients who are young or live with family, not as effective for older patients

(-) requires family to be open and honest. can be tension/ineffective if EE is high

(-) might not be offered to everyone bc lack of NHS funding

(-) doesn’t cure sz or remove symptoms, helps to manage symptoms instead.

Question 6

What study did Pharoah (2010) conduct?

Answer 6

• reviewed 53 studies between 2002-2010 from Europe, N.America, Asia
• investigated outcomes of family therapy vs drugs

Question 7

What were the results from Pharoah’s (2010) study?

Answer 7

• similar outcomes for both therapies
• family therapy increased compliance for drugs
• family therapy had no effect on improving employability skills or independent living
• family therapy reduced relapse rates/hospitalisation within 2 years

Question 8

Evaluate Pharoah’s (2010) study.

Answer 8

(+) supported by Interactionist Approach - looks at multiple therapies to see which is most effective

(+)/(-) family therapy is effective in improving mental state and social functioning but argued that it’s only bc of drug compliance (family therapy doesn’t do anything)

(-) Wu (2000) criticises bc of lack of randomisation when allocating patients to either condition. In the study, many patients came from China and weren’t randomly allocated. Findings aren’t subjective or scientific.