Family therapy for persons experiencing pain: evidence for its effectiveness

The family context has been hypothesized to be particularly important in understanding, if not explaining, the development and perpetuation of chronic pain conditions. Family systems perspectives, the operant conditioning model of chronic pain, and cognitive-behavioral models have all encouraged investigation of the impact of chronic pain on the family and its members and, conversely, the potentially deleterious effects of maladaptive family responses in maintaining the disorder. This article offers a brief overview of relevant theoretical perspectives and the empirical research informed by them. A more detailed and critical review is presented of the few empirical investigations of the efficacy of pain treatment approaches involving the partner of the person experiencing pain. Implications of these studies for improving our understanding of the role of families in the perpetuation of chronic pain, particularly for the further refinement and evaluation of family and couples treatment approaches, are discussed.