The influence of individual, marital, and family therapy on high utilizers of health care.

Research has shown that people reduce their use of health care after individual, marital, and family therapy, which is known as the "offset effect." However, little research has been done to learn if high utilizers of health care reduce health care usage after therapy. Medical records of research participants (n = 65) from a health maintenance organization (HMO) were randomly selected and examined for 6 months before, during, and after therapy. Persons who received individual, marital, or family therapy all reduced their health care use after therapy, with the largest reductions coming from those participants who had some form of conjoint therapy.