Mothers in therapy for drug and alcohol use recover faster if their children take part in their treatment sessions, according to a first-of-its-kind study.
Researchers found that women who were in family therapy – which included their 8- to 16-year-old children – showed a quicker decline in alcohol, marijuana and cocaine use over 18 months compared to mothers who were in individual therapy.
This is the first study to examine the effectiveness of family therapy for mothers who are substance users, said Natasha Slesnick, lead author of the study and professor of human sciences at The Ohio State University.
“Interpersonal stress, especially within the family, has been shown to be an important factor in drug and alcohol abuse,” Slesnick said. “So it makes sense that having mothers and children working together in therapy can help moms with substance use problems do better over time.
[For more of this story, written by Jeff Grabmeier, go to https://news.osu.edu/news/2016...amp;utm_medium=email]
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