Items Tagged With family therapy

Family therapy may be more effective than simply increasing the dosage of an antidepressant drug when a patient with severe depression suffers a relapse during long-term treatment, new research suggests.

The results from the present study illustrate the important role life events and family balance have on patients being treated for repeat depression episodes, note Dr. Giovanni A. Fava, University of Bologna, Italy, and colleagues.

"If one is taking antidepressants but has a lot of stress around, particularly in their family, they need family treatment and not more drugs," Fava told Reuters Health.

Family-based therapy works better than individual supportive therapy in treating teenagers with bulimia, a study published yesterday suggests.

In the study, in the September issue of The Archives of General Psychiatry, researchers randomly assigned 80 adolescents to receive 20 sessions over six months of family therapy or supportive treatment. There were no differences between the two groups in the number of sessions attended. But five in the family group and four from the supportive group dropped out of treatment.