The Effect of Multiple Family Therapy on Addict Family Functioning:

Abstract

Family therapy may help addicts remain drug abstinent by improving family functioning. In a outpatient pilot study eight addict families were evaluated before and after 16 weeks of multiple family therapy (MFT), while the addict was maintained on naltrexone, an opiate antagonist. The Beavers Timberlawn Family Assessment was used to rate videotapes on problem solving, family structure, individual autonomy, and affect. The 8 families showed significant improvement in global functioning, problem solving, structure, and autonomy, but not in affect. One addict relapsed during the 10 month follow up, and his was the only family that functioned worse at follow up. We concluded that MFT can help addict families progress from chaotic interactions to more stable family structures and from rigid to more flexible family functioning. This improvement in family functioning may be associated with ex-addicts remaining abstinent.

Multiple family discussion groups for patients with chronic medical illness.

“…Initially designed as open-ended groups for hospitalized psychotic patients and their families, multiple family groups have over the last 3 decades been used as adjunctive treatments for a wide variety of clinical conditions, including affective disorders (Anderson, Griffin, Rossi, et al, 1986a), schizophrenia (Anderson, Reiss, & Hogarty, 1986b; Falloon, Boyd, McGill, et al., 1985; McFarlane, 1983), eating disorders (Slagerman & Yager, 1989), and substance abuse (Kosten, Hogan, Jalali, et al, 1986). In each of these arenas, clinicians have reported that MFGs seem to increase engagement of patients and families in treatment protocols, improve patients’ social functioning, and at times have a direct impact on patients’ symptomatology.…”

Multi‐Family Therapy with a Reflecting Team: A Preliminary Study on Efficacy among Opiate Addicts in Methadone Maintenance Treatment

“…Although during the nineteen-seventies, the literature and research on multi-family groups are limited, this format became increasingly popular in the treatment of alcohol abuse and the abuse of other drugs (Bergen, 1973;Kaufman & Kaufman, 1979). In the nineteen-eighties, we find references to its application in heroin addiction treatment programs in the therapeutic community (Anton, Hogan, Jalali, Riordan, & Kleber, 1981;Clerici et al, 1988) and for alcoholism and substance abuse (Kosten, Hogan, Jalali, Steidl, & Kleber, 1986;Lovern & Zohn, 1982). From the mid-nineteen-eighties to the mid-nineteen-nineties, we found only a few publications on multifamily group therapy.…”

Multiple Family Group Therapy in a Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Centre: Residents' Experiences

“…Central to the effective facilitation of the groups are principles of restoring self-efficacy, vicarious learning, improved communication skills and support (see Kaufman & Kaufman, 1979;McFarlane, 1982;Asen, 2002). Most publications on MFGs appeared between the 1970s (Alger, 1975;Bergen, 1973;Bowen, 1975;Hendricks, 1971;Kaufman & Kaufman, 1977;Laqueur, 1976;Laqueur et al, 1964;McKamy, 1976) and the mid-eighties (Anton et al, 1981;Clerici et al, 1988;Lovern & Zohn, 1982;Nichols, 1985;Kosten et al, 1986;Zimberg, 1982, McFarlane, 1982. McFarlane (1982), for example, developed a multi-family therapy program in a psychiatric hospital because he was convinced that families might learn from each other by seeing parts of themselves in others.…”