Family Intervention for Mental Illness and Substance Abuse

Substance use disorder (SUD) in persons with severe mental illness may worsen the course of psychiatric illness. The loss of family support for individuals with mental illness is a major contributing factor to housing instability, homelessness, and other problems. Despite progress toward integrating mental health and substance abuse services, interventions that improve the course of mental illness while helping the families of the mentally ill are not currently available. Enhancing skills for coping with mental illness may be an effective strategy for treating SUD, decreasing caregiver burden, and improving the long-term outcomes for people with mental illness.

Patients and their families are randomly assigned to either the Family Intervention for Dual Diagnosis (FIDD) program or family psychoeducation. The FIDD program lasts for up to 3 years and includes both single and multiple-family group formats. The family psychoeducation program consists of 6 weekly sessions. Routine assessments are conducted on all patients, and relatives are evaluated on a wide range of outcomes, including substance abuse, hospitalizations, psychiatric symptoms, legal problems, aggression, housing and homelessness, family burden, social support, and quality of life. To determine the effectiveness of the FIDD program, knowledge of mental illness and problem-solving skills are assessed in the families following treatment.

Inclusion criteria

• Have schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or bipolar disorder
• Have a current substance use disorder (within the past 6 months)
• Are willing to have at least 4 hours of contact per week with family members or significant others
• Plan to remain in the community
• Have family members or significant others who consent to participate in the study and plan to remain in the community