Meta-analysis of medical self-help groups

Self-help groups (SHGs) may rival all other forms of treatment sometime wit hin the next century (see Goodman & Jacobs article in "The Handbook of Grou p Psychotherapy," Wiley, 1994), though the "purist" model of SHGs seems ina ccurate because many professionals are actually involved. Although traditio nal forms of group treatment have kept pace with empirical research (Fuhrim an & Burlingame, "The Handbook of Group Psychotherapy, " 1994) SHGs have no t. In particular, medical SHGs, often promoted by hospitals as viable treat ment alternatives, have no systemized database from which to draw conclusio ns about overall effectiveness compared to traditional group therapies. A p reliminary assessment of this area is presented using a meta-analysis of ar ticles culled from a comprehensive review of the literature from 1970 to 19 97 Results indicate that although the posttreatment analysis produced no si gnificant differences between active and control conditions, pre to posttre atment scores indicated that SHGs produced higher patient improvement when compared to the control condition. Future implications for research and use of medical SHGs are explored.