Effect of Behavioral Couple Therapy on Expressed Emotion

Description

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21273242

Trishna G. Chettri¹, Adesh N. Tiwary², Sijo George³, Suraj Tiwari⁴, Bishal Mani Poudel⁵, Samikshya Ghimire⁶, Suman Aryal⁷, Sushila Dangol⁸, and Pratima Rai⁹ (Clinical Psychologist, Mental Hospital Lagankhel, NAMS, Nepal¹, Clinical Psychologist, Manoshastra Counselling Center, Nepal²,
Consultant, National Institute of Smart Governance, New Delhi³,
Director, Senior Consultant Psychiatrist, Assistant Professor, Mental Hospital Lagankhel, Nepal⁴, Consultant Psychiatrist, Civil Hospital, Min Bhawan, Kathmandu Nepal, Nepal⁵, Consultant Psychiatrist, Mental Hospital Lagankhel, NAMS, Nepal^6,7, Head of Nursing Department, Mental Hospital Lagankhel, Nepal⁸, and Psychologist, Manoshastra Counseling Centre, Nepal⁹)

This study examined how Behavioral Couple Therapy (BCT) influences married couples’ expressed emotions (EE) and how it helps those with alcohol dependency syndrome (ADS) abstain from alcohol. This study included 30 couples (60 in total) participants, split into two groups. Group 1 (control) received Treatment as Usual (TAU), while Group 2 received Treatment as Usual along with Behavioral Couple Therapy (TAU+ BCT). The Family Questionnaire (FQ) (Wiedemann et al., 2002) and DAS (Spanier, 1976) and researchers measured couples’ expressed emotion, their level of cooperation, the severity of their alcohol problem and other personal and medical information at the beginning, after treatment with BCT, follow-up at 3 months and 6 months. The result showed that participants in Group 2 had reduced expressed emotions, especially with those associated with criticism, rage, grief and excessive emotion. Follow-up sessions suggested fewer relapse cases of Alcohol Dependency Syndrome in Group 2 participants. When looking at personal elements and the seriousness of the alcohol trouble, the Cox regression analysis confirmed that better levels of expressed feelings had been connected to a higher chance of relapse. These findings support that BCT is beneficial for improving marriage relationships, lowering expressed feelings, and assisting people with Alcohol Dependency Syndrome to preserve sobriety.