Family therapy can also reduce relapse and re- hospitalization rates for severe mental illness.
When compared with other treatments, marriage and family therapy has consistently been more effective in improving family interaction patterns and individual patient behavior, especially for problems that involve marital and family conflict. When other measures of recidivism are examined, such as hospitalization, family therapy also shows a higher success rate than alternative treatments. Studies have shown that marriage and family therapy has Been successful in treating alcoholism, anorexia and other eating disorders, psychosomatic asthma, overly aggressive children, juvenile delinquency, and other problems. The use of marriage and family therapists has increased dramatically in recent years. Major private insurers and managed care programs use marriage and family therapists as key providers of mental health care.