[Brief family therapy: an option for the treatment of somatoform disorders in primary care]. / Terapia familiar breve: una opción para el tratamiento de los trastornos somatoformes en atención primaria.

OBJECTIVE: To study the application of the brief family therapy model to the treatment of somatoform disorders in scheduled primary care consultations. DESIGN: Intervention study. SETTING: Cazoña Health Centre, Santander. PATIENTS: 18 patients who had suffered somatoform disorder for at least a year. INTERVENTIONS: A general practitioner trained in short-term family therapy applied this treatment under the supervision of a specially trained psychologist. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: The variables of the research into the results of brief family therapy were collected. These showed 61.1% therapeutic success, 27.8% failure and 11.1% abandonment. There were no relapses at the six-month control. Total number of consultations varied between 1 and 11, average 4.6; the average interval between consultations was 27 days, with an average length of 48 minutes for each consultation. Time between the first and last consultation varied from 1 to 242 days, average 96 days. Brevity of treatment was related to its therapeutic success. CONCLUSIONS: Training in brief family therapy, with supervision at the start, can provide primary care doctors with a treatment alternative for resolving somatoform disorders without the patient having to accept a psychological reason for his/her complaints.