Multifamily Therapy in the Treatment of Eating Disorders

This paper gives the summary of the six-year operations of multi-family therapy programme in eating disorders at The Eating Disorders Centre at The Psychiatric Clinic, Prague. The research done has been the first experience with multi-family treatment of psychiatric patients in the Czech Republic. This therapy concept is often used abroad as a form of work with patients suffering from the diagnosis of eating disorders. It is a "first choice" method due to NICE Guideline(2004). The inspiration for the Prague team was the London Maudsley model. The main aims of the research were: 1/ to introduce this therapeutic approach into a complex treatment of patients suffering from eating disorders, optimize the functioning structure and programme and stabilize the therapeutic team and 2/ to evaluate the effectiveness of multi-family treatment and suggest the suitable metodology. Since 2004 twenty families which form the observed group have been involved in the project. The combination of qualitative and quantitative methodology was chosen during the primary stage of the research. The methods used were: questionnaires of Beck Depression Inventory (BDI),Schwartz scale of therapy assessment (SOS-10), the life quality questionnaire (SQUALA) and Rosenberg self-concept questionnaire (RSE). We evaluated ten..