title: Does adding conjoint therapy to individually focused alcoholism treatment lead to better family functioning?
abstract: This report examines functioning in the families of alcoholics undergoing outpatient treatment. Alcoholic patients were randomly assigned to two social-learning-based alcoholism treatments, one of which contained a conjoint therapy component. Patients (Pts) and significant others (SOs) provided ratings of family functioning before treatment and at a 6-month follow-up. According to the perceptions of both Pts and SOs, there were significant improvements in family functioning in a number of areas at posttreatment. Contrary to what was expected, however, the improvements were not greater in the conjoint condition. The usefulness of alcoholics' level of autonomy as a matching variable also was explored. According to the perceptions of both Pts and SOs, posttreatment family functioning was better when low-autonomy alcoholics were treated without other family members. There also was evidence that conjoint treatment was more effective with high-autonomy alcoholics and their families, although it was less convincing and limited to the SOs' perceptions. Implications for alcoholism treatment and the limitations of the findings are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104.
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: McKay
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Longabaugh
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Beattie
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Maisto
authors.forename: N E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Noel
mesh_terms: D000437:Alcoholism / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D005190:Family; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods