Multiple Family Therapy with Drug Abusers

Multiple family therapy: an overview

“…In this way the multiple family paradigm has inspired more traditional therapeutic activities in general mental health services, such as relative support and carer groups, and it is now a well-established ingredient in the work with people with schizophrenia (Kuipers et al, 1992). Multiple family therapy is now also practised in many other presentations and conditions (O'Shea and Phelps, 1985), including drug and alcohol abuse (Kaufman and Kaufman, 1979), chronic medical illness (Gonsalez et al, 1989;Steinglass, 1998), Huntingdon's disease (Murburg et al, 1988), child abuse (Asen et al, 1989), eating-disorder patients (Dare and Eisler, 2000;Scholz and Asen, 2001;Slagerman and Yager, 1989), and more specifically bulimia nervosa (Wooley and Lewis, 1987), and a mixture of in-and outpatient children and adolescents presenting with a variety of problems (Wattie, 1994). It is likely that its cost-effectiveness in times of dwindling resources does explain in part the increasing popularity of the multiple family therapy approach.…”

Multiple Family Therapy: Current Status and Critical Appraisal

“…Also, Kaufman and Kaufmann (37) advocated multiple family therapy as the primary psychosocial intervention for heroin‐abusing clients in a residential treatment center. Their interest in the approach was stimulated in part by its promise as an expedient and efficient way of using limited staff resources.…”

“…For example, some MFT programs have been limited to mothers and their index‐patient children (35) whereas others have included parents, index patients, and siblings of the patient (26, 42). With urban drug abusers, MFT has been composed of patients, parents, and siblings (see 7) along with anyone else with whom the patient lived or had “emotional ties” (see 10), provided that nonpatient participants were drug‐free (see 37). Some applications of MFT with medically ill adult patients have emphasized the importance of including children (66), and others have emphasized the presence of “all blood relatives living in the same household including spouses, parents, and children” (62, p. 9).…”

Intensive multi‐family therapy for adolescent anorexia nervosa: an open study of 30 families

“…MFT, originally pioneered by Laqueur et al . () has been applied in a variety of conditions, including schizophrenia (Anderson, ; McFarlane, ), substance misuse (Kaufman and Kaufman, ), depression (Lemmens et al . ), chronic medical illness (Steinglass, ), child abuse (Asen et al ., ) and eating disorders (Eisler, ; Scholz and Asen, ; Scholz et al ., ; Slagerman and Yager, ; Wooley and Lewis, ).…”