Conceptual and practical horizons of systemic family psychotherapy and substance use

Abstract

It is known that the use of psychoactive substances and family groups have been part of humanity since ancient civilizations. Over the years, several researches have been carried out in order to analyze the relationships and aspects related to family dynamics and the use and dependence of these substances. Several of these studies show the presence of problems related to drug abuse in the family system, which are associated with high degrees of stress in families. The early identification of these problems may enable the formulation of effective intervention strategies, with the objective of developing skills to deal with such difficulties within this system. From a systemic perspective, the treatment of substance dependence takes into account the stages of the life cycle and aims to identify family predisposing stressors of problematic use, enabling families to learn different ways of dealing with daily situations and adversities without harmful substance consumption. In this sense, in order to instrumentalize professionals to act in this area, this chapter aims to discuss some concepts about family and contextualize the development of systemic family psychotherapy, focusing specifically on the use of psychoactive substances through the different vital cycles.