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The Impact of Individual and Family Treatment on the Affective Climate of Families of Schizophrenics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Jeri A. Doane*
Affiliation:
Yale University School of Medicine, and Yale Psychiatric Institute, P. O. Box 12A, Yale Station, New Haven, Connecticut, 06520, USA
Michael J. Goldstein
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA
David J. Miklowitz
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA
Ian R. H. Falloon
Affiliation:
University of Southern California School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California; Buckingham Hospital, Buckingham, Bucks
*
Correspondence

Abstract

Measures of parental affective style were compared for families of schizophrenics participating in a controlled treatment study which contrasted individual and family-based therapeutic programmes. The total number of critical statements and non-critical, intrusive remarks was significantly lower after three months for parents of schizophrenics participating in family therapy, compared to those whose offspring received only individual therapy. An increased risk for relapse was associated with an increase in the number of critical and/or intrusive remarks for patients in individual treatment. A significant increase in non-emotional, problem-solving statements was observed in parents who received family therapy, compared with those who did not. The results suggest that a behaviourally-oriented, problem-solving family approach may have reduced the risk of relapse in the first nine months after discharge from hospital by teaching families concrete ways of solving problems and concomitantly reducing the amount of negative emotional relating between family members.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © 1986 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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