The efficacy of bowen family system therapy on chronic anxiety and differentiation in patients with psychosomatic disorders

Evidence suggests that low family differentiation leads to anxiety throughout the family and affects children's social functioning and psychosomatic symptoms. Despite numerous studies examining system family therapy's efficacy on various pathological outcomes, including increased differentiation and psychological health, there are rare studies on psychosomatic disorders.

This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of Bowen Family System Therapy on chronic anxiety and differentiation in patients with psychosomatic disorders (migraine, gastrointestinal disorders, and cardiovascular disorders).

The present study was quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design and a control group. The statistical population of this study consisted of all patients with three types of psychosomatic disorders including migraine, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular disorders which were referred to Shariati Hospital and Tehran Heart Center in 2020. Thirty eligible people were selected by the available sampling method and randomly assigned to two groups. All of them completed the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI; 1988) and short-form of Differentiation of Self Inventory-Revised (DSI-R; Skowron & Friedlander, 1998) in the pretest and posttest stages. The experimental group received Bowen Family System Therapy. Finally, after data collection, a multivariate analysis of covariance was used to analyze the data using SPSS-version 19 software.

The results showed that there was a significant difference between the two groups in both variables of anxiety, differentiation, and all their components (P<0.01). So, Bowen Family System Therapy reduced anxiety and increased differentiation in the experimental group.

The findings of the present study showed that the treatment of Bowens Family System Therapy is effective in reducing the symptoms of chronic anxiety and increasing differentiation. Therefore, training psychologists, counselors, family therapists, and other educators in the field of family therapy are beneficial in promoting differentiation in the whole family system.