Psychological Treatments - Family Therapy

Question 1

AO1

Answer 1

• family therapy is based on the idea that as family dysfunction can play a role in the development of SZ altering relationship and communication patterns within dysfunctional families should help schizophrenics to recover. It also works by reducing expressed emotions and stress levels within yeh family which may contribute to a patients risk of relapse

Question 2

The main aim of family therapy is to reduce levels of expressed emotions/ stress by

Answer 2

1) improving families beliefs about and behavior towards SZ

2) reducing the stress of caring for a relative with SZ

3) decreasing feelings of guilt and anger in family members

4) helping family members achieve a balance between caring for the individual with SZ and maintaining their own lives

Therapists meet regularly with patiently same family members over the cousins of found 9 months to a year and are encouraged to be open and talk about the patient’s symptoms behavior and progress

Question 3

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Answer 3

P - research to support family therapy as a treatment for SZ was conducted by LEFF ET AL 1985.

E - they compared family therapy with routine outpatient care for schizophrenic and found that in the first 9 months of treatment 50% of those receiving routine care relapsed compared with only 8% of those receiving family therapy.

E - this suggests that family therapy is an effective therapy for preventing relapse of schizophrenic symptoms through improving communication within families and so reducing levels of expressed emotion

L - therefore increasing the validity of family therapy as a treatment of SZ