Medical Family Therapy: A Theoretical and Empirical Review

Medical Family Therapy (MedFT) is a relatively young sub-specialty founded initially at the intersection of Family Therapy
and Family Medicine. The purpose of this article is to synthesize and review scholarly literature covering almost 30 years
of history, growth, and available research on MedFT. Eighty-two articles that met specific inclusion criteria were reviewed
and the literature was categorized into four distinct themes: (a) Emergence of MedFT in the literature; (b) Contemporary MedFT
skills and applications; (c) Punctuating the “family therapy” in MedFT; and (d) MedFT effectiveness and efficacy research.
What was learned was that MedFT is growing so rapidly there is now a need for a current definition, identification of core
curriculum standards and competencies for training, as well as a commitment to produce rigorous research on its effectiveness
and efficacy. Recommendations to advance efforts across the foci are provided.