Agoraphobia and Paradigm Strain [electronic resource] : A Family Systems Perspective / Glenn Shean and Michael Rohrbaugh.
Agoraphobia is an increasingly common, often chronically incapacitating anxiety disorder. Both behavior therapy and pharmacotherapy can be effective in reducing the intensity of agoraphobic symptoms. There are promising new developments, however, from a family systems perspective. Researchers are fi...
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
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1987.
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| Summary: | Agoraphobia is an increasingly common, often chronically incapacitating anxiety disorder. Both behavior therapy and pharmacotherapy can be effective in reducing the intensity of agoraphobic symptoms. There are promising new developments, however, from a family systems perspective. Researchers are finding that an agoraphobic's marriage and family relationships are profoundly relevant to understanding this disorder and the long-term results of treatment. Four empirically supported propositional statements are relevant to the role of family interactional factors in agoraphobia: (1) agoraphobia occurs in highly complementary relationships, particularly marriages organized according to traditional sex-roles; (2) close relatives of agoraphobics, particularly their spouses, often are reported to have equally serious problems; (3) agoraphobic symptoms arise in response to real or anticipated changes in vital relationships and function to preserve former patterns; and (4) symptomatic improvement may have negative repercussions in the family system. Two interactional systems models which most readily accommodate these findings are the functional/structural view and the accidental/sequential model. Therapists must address the question of which levels of system-individual, couple patient-family, or patient-family-helpers, have priority for intervention under what circumstances. Implicit in the interactional systems view is the idea that broader levels of context are most relevant. (NB) |
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| Item Description: | ERIC Document Number: ED288161. ERIC Note: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association (33rd, Atlanta, GA, March 25-28, 1987). |
| Physical Description: | 18 p. |