Multisystemic Therapy®: Clinical Overview, Outcomes, and Implementation Research

Multisystemic therapy (MST) is an evidence-based treatment originally developed for youth with serious antisocial behavior who are at high risk for out-of-home placement and their families; and subsequently adapted to address other challenging clinical problems experience by youths and their families. The social-ecological theoretical framework of MST is presented as well as its home-based model of treatment delivery, defining clinical intervention strategies, and ongoing quality assurance/quality improvement system. With more than 100 peer-reviewed outcome and implementation journal articles published as of January 2016, the majority by independent investigators, MST is one of the most extensively evaluated family based treatments. Outcome research has yielded almost uniformly favorable results for youths and families, and implementation research has demonstrated the importance of treatment and program fidelity in achieving such outcomes.