Clinical Implications

Abstract

Although our studies have scientific and other limitations, some of the prominent findings have clinical significance. In many ways, they support impressions gleaned from practice and also are consistent with the results of epidemiological studies of individuals. Inasmuch as our studies included historical research reviews, a longitudinal epidemiological study of families, and historical-clinical case studies, they provide a backdrop that has both breadth and depth against which clinicians can compare their experiences and gain perspectives on their own practices.

Families who turn to their physicians for help at times of crisis can also teach the physician much about the nature of life in families, the struggle to find both meaning and intimacy in the connectedness of human existence, and the remarkable human capacity for change and growth. —Lewis (1979, p. 89)