Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT) for Young People in Treatment for Non‐Opioid Drug Use: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The Campbell Collaboration was founded on the principle that systematic reviews on the effects of interventions will inform and help improve policy and services. Campbell offers editorial and methodological support to review authors throughout the process of producing a systematic review. A number of Campbell's editors, librarians, methodologists and external peer reviewers contribute. Plain language summaryInterventions to reduce homelessness and improve housing stability are effectiveThere are large numbers of homeless people around the world. Interventions to address homelessness seem to be effective, though better quality evidence is required. What is this review about?There are large numbers of homeless people around the world. Recent estimates are over 500,000 people in the USA, 100,000 in Australia and 30,000 in Sweden. Efforts to combat homelessness have been made on national levels as well as at local government levels.This review assesses the effectiveness of interventions combining housing and case management as a means to reduce homelessness and increase residential stability for individuals who are homeless, or at risk of becoming homeless. What is the aim of this review?This Campbell systematic review examines the effectiveness of interventions to reduce homelessness and increase residential stability for individuals who are homeless, or at risk of becoming homeless. Forty-three studies were included in the review, 37 of which are from the USA. What studies are included?Included studies were randomized controlled trials of interventions for individuals who were already, or at-risk of becoming, homeless, and which measured impact on homelessness or housing stability with follow-up of at least one year.A total of 43 studies were included. The majority of the studies (37) were conducted in the United States, with three from the United Kingdom and one each from Australia, Canada, and Denmark. 6The Campbell Collaboration | www.campbellcollaboration.org What are the main findings of this review?Included interventions perform better than the usual services at reducing homelessness or improving housing stability in all comparisons. These interventions are: These interventions seem to have similar beneficial effects, so it is unclear which of these is best with respect to reducing homelessness and increasing housing stability. What do the findings of this review mean?A range of housing programs and case management interventions appear to reduce homelessness and improve housing stability, compared to usual services.However, there is uncertainty in this finding as most the studies have risk of bias due to poor reporting, lack of blinding, or poor randomization or allocation concealment of participants. In addition to the general need for better conducted and reported studies, there are specific gaps in the research with respect to: 1) disadvantaged youth; 2) abstinence-contingent housing with case management or day treatment; 3) non-abstinence contingent housing comparing group vs independent living; 4) Hous...

Compared with what? An analysis of control‐group types in Cochrane and Campbell reviews of psychosocial treatment efficacy with substance use disorders

“…The reviews by Lindstrøm et al . 28 and Smedslund et al . 30 were both explicit about what kind of effect estimates can be found in studies with active versus inactive control conditions.…”

“…Compared with assessment of different potential biases in the primary studies, little attention was paid to the implications of using different control groups in all reviews except Lindstrøm et al . 28 and Smedslund et al . 30 .…”

“…There was mainly little justification for considered control-group types. Besides a short notice in 28 , basically no rationale was given for considered control conditions in any of the reviews.…”

Effects of family therapy for substance abuse: A systematic review of recent research

“…Brief strategic family therapy, and ecologically based family therapy BSFT was the family intervention applied in three studies carried out with adolescents (6, 12, 14) and EBFT in one (16). In Lindstrøm et al's (2013) meta-analysis, no empirical evidence for substance use reduction in favor of BSFT was found. Again, the limited number of studies (three) included in this meta-analysis must be taken into account.…”