© British Association of Social Workers
The Families of Agoraphobics Treated by Behaviour Therapy
Barbara Hudson is now a part-time Senior Psychiatric Social Worker at St. Olave's Hospital, London (in the Guy's Group) engaged mainly in research on the Community Management of Chronic Schizophrenics. She has a Cambridge M.A. in Modern Languages and trained in Social Work at the Universities of Chicago and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. A particular interest is the application of a behavioural approach within social work
Summary
The article describes a study of the families of agoraphobics. On the basis of interviews with patients undergoing treatment by extensive exposure the P.S.W. assigned them to 3 groups: ‘well-adjusted families’, ‘anxious-patients families’ and ‘sick families’. 6 of the 7 patients in the ‘well-adjusted’ group showed significant improvement, maintained over a follow-up period of 1 year. At 3 month's follow-up none of the other patients had shown improvement, at 1 year's follow-up one ‘anxious’ patient entered the significantly improved category with additional help, and 3 showed a trend towards improvement; of the ‘sick families’ patients one eventually showed a trend towards improvement. Possible associations between family adjustment and the patient's chances of recovery are then discussed