Family therapy treatment

• Family Therapy

  Used in the treatment of Schizophrenia
• Aim of Family Therapy


  • Improve the quality of communication and interaction between family members
• Family Therapy


  1. Typically offered for a period of between 3 and 12 months

  2. At least ten sessions

  3. Commonly used in conjunction with routine drug treatment and outpatient clinical care
• During Family Therapy


  1. Therapist encourages family members to listen to each other

  2. Openly discuss problems

  3. Negotiate potential solutions together
• Therapist may focus on


  • Decreasing the level of expressed emotion within the family
  • Hostility, verbal criticism and over-involvement increase the likelihood of relapse
• If a family is over-involved in a patient's life


  • Therapist may discuss how patient may be encouraged to act independently to reduce avolition
• Psychoeducation


  • Provided to the family so they can learn about schizophrenia as an illness and how they can help
• If a family understands that hearing voices is a common symptom

  They may be more likely to empathise with the patient
• If they understand what happens during a psychotic episode

  They will be more able to help avoid the triggers and know how best deal with such situations calmly
• Individuals with paranoid schizophrenia


  • May be suspicious about their treatment provided by an unknown health professional
• Involving the individual and their family more actively in their treatment


  • Helps them to overcome this problem
• Family therapy can be effective in helping family members


  Achieve a balance between caring for the individual with the condition and maintaining their own lives
• The main reason for the effectiveness of family therapy

  May be that it increases medication compliance rather than improving symptoms directly
• Patients are more likely to comply with their medication regime when encouraged by a supportive family
• NICE has recommended that 'all individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia who are in contact with or live with family members' should be offered family therapy
• NICE also stress that such interventions should be considered a priority where there are persistent symptoms or a high risk of relapse because a supportive family network is crucial to aid prevention
• Individual differences


  It is argued that family therapy would be inappropriate for most individuals with schizophrenia to access in the first instance due to the demanding lengthy therapy sessions which patients would find too challenging and be unable to concentrate, especially those suffering from negative symptoms such as avolition or cognitive impairments
• A patient with schizophrenia may have little or no interest in the cause of their problem


  As a result they are unlikely to benefit from family therapy
• Antipsychotic drugs may be more appropriate for the individual in the short term


  To address schizophrenic symptoms preventing them from engaging in psychological therapy, then introduce family therapy to improve quality of life when the patient is ready
• Cultural differences


  The way in which family therapy is delivered will be determined by the beliefs within the local cultural setting and how this relates to the local beliefs of a mental illness
• In individualist cultures like the UK and the US, families vary between those that have members living in close proximity to one another and those that are fragmented, with relatives living in different places
• In collectivist cultures and more traditional families, the members live together and there are closer ties
• Patients in developing countries may function better simply because of the greater kinship that provides a greater tolerance to unusual behaviours
• In westernised countries, schizophrenia is often viewed as a stigmatised mental illness, but in other parts of the world (e.g. Africa and South America), it is treated with more compassion
• This will affect which treatment would be more appropriate for the patient with schizophrenia, as there are differences in the degree to which members want to be involved in helping
• The symptoms of schizophrenia are grouped into positive, negative, disorganized, and cognitive categories.