Intensive Family Therapy

The main objective was to study intensive family therapy (IFT) within a treatment program carried out at a child and adolescent psychiatric clinic. Our study uses a quasi-experimental design with pre-treatment, post-treatment, and follow-up assessment and comprises 46 consecutive families, using the Family Relations Scale, Symptom Check List-90, and Child Behavior Check List. Baseline values reveal a heavy problem load. Significant differences were, however, shown from pre-treatment to the six-month follow-up and pre-treatment to the two-year follow-up on all three scales. The effect sizes from pre-treatment to the six-month follow-up were low to medium. IFT works for multi-problem families, with continued improvements after completed treatment.