The evidence base for Multiple Family Therapy in psychiatric disorders: a review (part 1)

This article provides an updated and comprehensive overview of the empirical literature regarding Multiple Family Therapy (MFT)'s applications to major psychiatric disorders. It shows that MFT's strongest evidence base is for schizophrenia and chronic psychoses, making its psychoeducational model one of the best available practices for these disorders. There is also a growing body of evidence regarding the usefulness of MFT for mood disorders (particularly in children), eating disorders and alcohol-substance abuse, but more controlled research is needed for these conditions. Other disorders such as anxiety disorders, autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder have been studied in a more anecdotal fashion and require more rigorous investigations. Future research efforts should focus on: (1) the specific advantage of MFT over other active treatment modalities, (2) the comparative efficacy of various MFT models for a given population, and (3) MFT's change processes. Practitioner points McFarlane's psychoeducational MFT model is considered best practice for schizophrenia and other psychoses (and possibly mood disorders), facilitated by its manual- based approach The Maudsley model is a valuable treatment for adolescent anorexia nervosa. Family therapists who are less ED-focused in their interventions can also use more generic MFT models MFT practitioners should attempt to operationalize their MFT model and include an evaluation component in their therapeutic implementation