Family Therapy

To increase tolerance, decrease criticism and guilt for sufferers and improve communication between families of schizophrenic patients

• Convincing family members to be more tolerant and less critical
• Helping family members to feel less guilty and less responsible for causing the illness 
• Improving positive communication and decreasing negative communication between family members

• Family members can talk to people in the same situation as theirs for support and guidance 
• This helps to reduce feelings of isolation for families who feel they have to change their behaviours and thinking in order to improve relapse rates for family members with schizophrenia

To investigate the effectiveness of family therapy in comparison to 3 other types of therapy

• 4 groups of patients were studied 
• 1 group received medication only 
• 1 revived medication and social skills training 
• 1 group received medication and family therapy
• 1 group received medication, social skills training and family therapy

• Group 1 relapse rate: 40%
• Group 2 relapse rate: 20%
• Group 3 relapse rate: 20%
• Group 4 relapse rate: 0%

An interactionist or eclectic method seems to be the most effective in treating Schizophrenia

• Patients were followed up for a second year after family therapy and social training had ceased 
• Higher levels of relapse were observed 
• This suggests that therapy should continue, even when the patient is in the recovery phase

Treatments focussed on reducing EE in families reduced relapse rates

• Each type addresses a different aspect of the disorder 
• Family therapy addresses stress in families which is known to trigger symptoms of schizophrenia and increase relapse rates 
• CBT focusses on faulty cognitions

Family therapy is very effective when combined with drugs

• It fails to deal with the underlying cause of the disorder, only focussing on stress within the family which acts as a trigger 
• Most patients also require drug therapy in order for symptomatic improvement to be noticed
• This suggests that family therapy is not an effective treatment when used in isolation