Abstract



	The Influence of Marriage and Family Therapy on Health Care Utilization in a Health-Mainenance Organization - Journal of Marital and Family Therapy

	*Abstract*
	Investigated whether Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) is associated with a reduction of health care use as practiced in the day-to-day world of health care delivery. Three MFT treatment groups were studied: marital therapy, family therapy-identified patient, and family therapy-other patient. The identified patient was usually a child or adolescent that the parents were concerned about because of either externalized (e.g., behavioral) or internalized (e.g., depression, anxiety) problems. The family therapy-other patient group consisted of parents or siblings of the identified patient. 292 Ss (aged 2-60 yrs) from a health-maintenance organization were randomly selected according to the type of therapy they had received. Ss' medical records were examined for 6 mo before, during, and after therapy. Those who received marital and family therapy significantly reduced their use of health care services by 21.5%. These results show an "offset effect" for marriage and family therapy.