ABSTRACT
Ultimately, the impact of a therapy is determined by outcome research assessing effectiveness. This chapter, focused on pivotal reviews of the literature, summarizes the findings from the research on outcome in couple and family therapy. Numerous couple and family therapies—including those for adult alcoholism, adult and childhood depression, childhood conduct disorder, and childhood attention deficit disorder—have sufficient research support to qualify as empirically supported therapies. In addition, several treatments have been shown to be effective in reducing the difficulties surrounding physical illnesses. Nonetheless, the resounding message from the reviews is that one may already know a great deal and that much of what we know suggests that couple and family therapies are potent methods of treatment. These reviews demonstrate how far couple and family therapy have moved from being renegade therapies challenging the establishment to becoming some of the most empirically supported treatments for numerous disorders and difficulties.
