Psychological Therapies for Schizophrenia: Family Therapies

What are the three psychological therapies for schizophrenia?

1. Cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis (CBTp)

2. Family Therapy

3. Token Economies

What is family therapy?

A range of interventions carried out with all or some members of a family of someone with a mental disorder with the aim of improving their communication and reducing the stress of living as a family

What is the main aim of family therapy?

Provide support for carers to make family life less stressful and reduce relapse rates

Outline Pharoah et al (2010):

They reviewed 53 studies published between 2002 and 2010 to investigate the effectiveness of family intervention and compare the outcomes of therapy to standard care alone

They found a range of strategies by which family therapies aim to improve the functioning of a family with a member suffering from schizophrenia

What did Paharoah find about family therapy?

• Family intervention may decrease the frequency of relapses

• Family intervention may also reduce hospital admission and encourage compliance with medication

• Family intervention also seems to improve general social impairment and the levels of expressed emotion within the family

What are the 5 strategies developed by Pharoah used during family therapy?

1. Psychoeducation - helping carers understand and be better able to deal with illness

2. Alliance with family members

3. Improving ability of family to anticipate and solve problems

4. Reduction of expressions of anger and guilt by family members

5. Helping family members achieve a balance between caring for individual and maintaining own lives

Outline a study supporting the positive impact family therapy has on family members of a patient:

Lobban et al (2013)

They carried out meta-analysis on family therapy studies which has included an intervention to support relatives

60% of these studies reported significant positive impact of the intervention on at least one outcome category for relatives e.g. coping and problem-solving skills etc.