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ALCOHOL ABUSE
Author(s) -
O'Farrell Timothy J.,
FalsStewart William
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of marital and family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.868
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1752-0606
pISSN - 0194-472X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-0606.2003.tb00387.x
Subject(s) - marital therapy , family therapy , intervention (counseling) , psychology , referral , abstinence , psychotherapist , clinical psychology , alcoholics anonymous , medicine , psychiatry , family medicine
We receiwed 38 controlled studies of marital and family therapy (MFT) in alcoholism treatment. We conclude that, when the alcoholic is unwilling to seek help, MFT is effective in helping the family cope better and motivating alcoholics to enter treatment. Specifically, (a) Al‐Anon facilitation and referral help family members cope better; (b) Community Reinforcement and Family Training promotes treatment entry; and (c) the popular Johnson intervention apparently does not effectively promote treatment entry. Once the alcoholic enters treatment, MFT, particularly behavioral couples therapy (BCT), is clearly more effective than individual treatment at increasing abstinence and improving relationship fucntioning. BCT also reduces social costs, domestic violence, and emotional problems of the couple's children. Future studies need to specifically evaluate: MFT with women and with minority patients, mechanisms and processes of change, and transportability of evidencde‐based MFT approaches to clinical practice settings.