Family Therapy as an Alternative to Medication

This text addresses the issue of the increased reliance on pharmaceuticals as a "quick fix" for treating mental illness. Psychiatric medications have achieved dominance in mental health practices, not because of efficacy, but because of political and marketing practices, and this rush to medicate has largely eclipsed the family systems model of psychotherapy. This book awakens a broader awareness of how invaluable systems-oriented psychotherapy still is, even in the age of medical breakthroughs. It analyses both positive and negative effects of drug therapy and offers several approaches towards integration. It presents treatment illustrations for various disorders, along with potential problems that can arise from trying to combine a medical model with family systems work. The work as a whole is not a monologue on the evils of drug therapy. Rather, the book takes the position that family systems approaches are powerful tools that, when combined with appropriate medication, act synergistically in effecting positive outcomes of treatment.