Essay On Family Therapy

The use of family therapy in the treatment of drug abuse is particularly appropriate because, as has long been recognized, the family as a whole may profoundly influence the behaviour of its individual members, including their use, or nonuse, of drugs. It is beyond the scope of this chapter to describe and discuss the underlying philosophy and nature of family therapy, but it is important to understand that the family is a relatively stable system that tends to resist change, and that drug abuse may have powerful adaptive consequences that help to maintain that stability. For example, parents on the brink of divorce may remain united to cope with the recurrent crises of a drug-abusing child, and parents who cannot cope with the departure of

For adolescents it appears that family-based approaches are effective in engaging substance abusers in treatment and in reducing drug use. However, the clinical significance of these changes, and whether they are maintained is less clear. Evidence for the effectiveness of family therapy for adult substance abusers is weaker.

A variation on family therapy is multiple-family therapy in which a number of drug addicts’ families are treated conjointly. It is found that the families are able to support each other because of their shared experiences and that they learn to recognize and understand what is happening in their own family by observing similar phenomena in other families. The support offered by the group is particularly helpful at the very difficult time when parents begin to detach themselves from the problems of their drug-abusing child. Another variant on systemic approaches is ‘network therapy’ in which family members and friends

(where possible) are enlisted to provide ongoing support to promote attitude change. It uses psychodynamic and behavioural therapy while engaging the patient in a support network composed of family members and