| Abstract: | Thirty-five patients (20 women) treated by a Family Therapy Unit based in a psychiatric hospital were compared with 35 matched control inpatients who were not treated by the Unit. Family Therapy averaged 4.5 one hour sessions and was cybernetic rather than behavioural or psychoeducational. The main outcome measure was days spent in the hospital in the year after family therapy. Women, but not men, showed a significant improvement after family therapy, reducing their days in hospital from a mean of 50 in the year before family therapy to 18 in the year after. The best response was shown by women with affective disorder. Control men and women showed a slight increase in days spent in hospital. Improvement after family therapy was associated with a markedly positive change in key relatives' attitudes to the patient, and a strongly positive attitude towards family therapy. |
