The Effectiveness of Family Therapy - Essay Example

The Effectiveness of Family Therapy Introduction A lot of interest in the use of family therapy has been increased in the world ofpsychotherapy. This mode of therapy for people with mental disorders is almost becoming the generally accepted mode of therapy that many practitioners choose to use. There are those who have accepted this mode of therapy as a useful, effective method. However, there is a need to look at this mode of therapy in order to find how effective and efficient it is. It is definitely necessary to investigate whether the level of effectiveness of this method is the same across all types of disorders, across all types of patient and how some variables such as gender, sexual orientation and age can affect the level of success for this method. Literature review A lot number of scholars have been able to investigate this issue while looking at the various factors. For instance Geist et al (2000) looked at the issue of family therapy by comparing it to the family group psychoeducation in helping people with mental disorders. They found that the use of family group phsychoeducation was just as effective as family therapy, but was cheaper. Their study seems to not fully agree with what other people have said about family therapy. This is because in their study, they said that although family therapy seemed to work just as well as the use of family group psychoeducation, the family group psychoeducation was much cheaper, and also delivered slightly better results. Other factors have also been investigated by researchers. For instance, Glenny, OMeara, Melville, Sheldon & Wilson (1997) investigated whether family therapy is more effective for some kinds of patient more than for others. They found that for anorexic patients being treated for anorexia, children are likely to benefit from family therapy than adults. Adults however, are likely to benefit from behavioral therapy. However, their study added one more jewel in the crown of the family therapy mode of treating patients. Their findings indicated that the use of family therapy can and does improve outcomes, both in terms of time needed to treat the patients and also in terms helping the patients not to relapse. Their findings supported what Geist et a (2000) found with regard to family therapy. On the other hand, some scholars have been curious to know whether even as the concept of family therapy becomes popular it takes care of the nontraditional views of family. Gay and same sex marriages and families have for instance increased in the past few years and it is necessary to know how such families are affected by family therapy. According to Clark and Serovich (1997) the development of family therapy as the de facto treatment mode for mental patients have for the longest time ignored those families that do not take the traditional structure. This view of family therapy as the de facto treatment mode has only concentrated at families that are viewed in the traditional sense of father, mother and children. According to them, the issue of gay, lesbian and other forms of gender orientations has to be looked at. According to Clark & Serovich (1997), gay marriages have been ignored for a long time. They did a study of family therapy research studies that have been done since 1975 and found that these other gender and sexual orientation have been ignored in the study of family therapy. While they do not disagree on the fact that the use of family therapy is able to improve sales, they criticize it for lack of considering the use modern view of what a family can constitute. They therefore argue that this lack of considering new forms of family indicates that family therapy may not be effective for these new family models. Hare-Mustin (1987) also seems to support what Clark and Serovich (1997) found in their study. In her study, she looked at issues with regard to the view of what a family is. Specifically, she investigated the way the application of gender roles can affect family therapy especially with regard to couple therapy. She argues that the issue of gender roles in family therapy when the gender roles are regarded in the traditional sense affects the outcome of the therapy. She argues that the issue of gender brings a false dichotomy, regardless of whether it is taken from a traditional or a feminist perspective. However, like most scholars, she does not disagree on the effectiveness of the use of family therapy but only argues that more factors should be considered when family is used. Lezak (1978) also investigated the effectiveness of family therapy by investigating how family therapy can improve the life of individuals if the family members are given counseling with regard to how to live with patients who have certain kinds of mental issues such as characterological defects. He found that family therapy was useful in assisting the patient because it helped the family members to not only be able to live with characterological patients, but also in the attempt to restore such patients. Baucom, et al (1998) studied the effectiveness of couple and family interventions in regard to how it is more effective than the other methods. They argued that the use of family therapy does provide for some advantages. They argue that since family play an important role in any person’s life, it them makes sense that involving the entire family in the therapy of a patient will increase the efficacy of the therapy. The same was elicited by Hazelrigg, Cooper and Borduin (1987) who also looked at the issue of family therapy with regard to its efficacy. Their study indicated that the use if family therapy helps the patients to be able to not only recover fast but also effectively without the risk of relapsing. However, they also agree that there is a need to investigate how the efficacy of family changes across different types of disorders, or age groups. Their findings were also replicated by Stanton and Shadish (1997), who also identified that the use of family therapy has a way of increasing the effectiveness of the psychotherapy. Campbell and Patterson (1995) studied the effectiveness of family intervention for patients. Their findings and argument is that while there has been agreement that family intervention can help in assisting the patient to overcome his or her disorder, there needs to be more research in the issue especially with regard to this affects the different age groups. Their conclusion was that the use of family therapy is more effective in children than in adults. They also argued that the effectiveness of family therapy is dependent on the type of disorder being treated. Kazdin and Weisz (1998) also investigated the efficacy of family therapy. Like a number of most scholars, they agree that the use of family therapy is an effective way of treating patients with mental illnesses. They looked at a number of issues with regard to therapy such as the type of mental disorder the patient may be having. Their study reinforces the idea that the use of family therapy increases the effectiveness of the therapy. However, they argue that it is necessary to look at how this efficacy changes across the various types of disorders. It is evident that both scholars and practitioners agree that the use of family therapy increases the effectiveness of therapy to patients. However, there is a need to investigate further how this efficacy varies with regard to the many variables that can be identified in the context of therapy such s age differences in the patients, family setups and kind of disorder. References: Baucom, D. H., Shoham, V., Mueser, K. T., Daiuto, A. D., & Stickle, T. R. (1998). Empirically supported couple and family interventions for marital distress and adult mental health problems. . Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 66, 1 , PP. 53-88. Campbell, C., & and Patterson, J. (1995). The Effectiveness of Family Interventions In The Treatment Of Physical Illness. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 21, 4 , PP. 545–583. Clark, W. &. (1997). Twenty Years And Still In The Dark? Content Analysis Of Articles Pertaining To Gay, Lesbian, And Bisexual Issues In Marriage And Family Therapy Journals. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 23, 3 , PP. 239–253. Geist R, H. M. (2000). Comparison of family therapy and family group psychoeducation in adolescents with anorexia nervosa. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. Revue Canadienne de Psychiatrie, 45, 2 , PP.173-178. Glenny AM, O. S. (1997). The treatment and prevention of obesity: a systematic review of the literature. International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders : Journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity, 21, 9 , PP. 715-737. HARE-MUSTIN, R. (1987). The Problem of Gender in Family Therapy Theory. Family Process Volume, 26, 1 , PP. 15–27. Hazelrigg, M. D., Cooper, H. M., & Borduin, C. M. (1987). Evaluating the effectiveness of family therapies: An integrative review and analysis. . Psychological Bulletin, 101, 3 , PP. 428-442. Kazdin, A. E., & Weisz, J. R. (1998). Identifying and developing empirically supported child and adolescent treatments. . Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 66, 1 , PP. 19-36. Lezak, M. (1978). Living with the characterologically altered brain injured patient. . The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 39, 7 , PP. 592-598. Stanton, M. D., & Shadish, W. R. (1997). Outcome, attrition, and family–couples treatment for drug abuse: A meta-analysis and review of the controlled, comparative studies. . Psychological Bulletin, 122, 2 , PP. 170-191. Read More