Family System and Depression: Theoretical Perspectives and Intervention

Abstract

Depression is a serious mental illness with persistent and significant low mood and cognitive dysfunction as its core symptoms. A family system refers to a relatively stable system that is composed of tangible and intangible rules generated by the interaction of inner members. The whole system is more than the sum of its parts. Driven by an increasing number of researchers and therapists studying family-based systematic treatment of depression, the related field has made great progress in recent years. This article reviewed recent research on depression therapies that target families in need. In the second part, regarding the theoretical progress in the family system in patients with depression, the relationships between family roles, self-differentiation, and depression were discussed respectively. In the third part, regarding the clinical evidence of family therapy for depressive symptoms, the effectiveness and prospect of the specific systemic treatment model with families as the intervention objects were analyzed from four aspects: system change, attachment relationship, family cohesion, and personal cognition. In terms of shortcomings and future direction, the cross-sectional nature of the experimental design, the limitations of the measurement method, and the difficulty of controlling the experimental variables, etc., put forward higher levels of reliability, validity, and empirical requirements for future research in related fields.