Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T07:23:18.783Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Relatives' Expressed Emotion and the Course of Schizophrenia in Chandigarh

A Two-Year Follow-up of a First-Contact Sample

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

J. Leff*
Affiliation:
MRC Social and Community Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, DeCrespigny Park, London SE5
N. N. Wig
Affiliation:
WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office, Alexandria, Egypt
H. Bedi
Affiliation:
WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Mental Health, Chandigarh
D. K. Menon
Affiliation:
National Institute for the Mentally Handicapped, Secunderabad, India
L. Kuipers
Affiliation:
The Maudsley Hospital, London
A. Korten
Affiliation:
Social Psychiatry Research Unit, Australia National University, Canberra
G. Ernberg
Affiliation:
Division of Mental Health, WHO, Geneva
R. Day
Affiliation:
Psychiatric Epidemiology Program, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
N. Sartorius
Affiliation:
Division of Mental Health, WHO, Geneva
A. Jablensky
Affiliation:
WHO Collaborating Center for Mental Health, Sofia
*
Correspondence

Abstract

A two-year follow-up was conducted of a subsample of the Chandigarh cohort of first-contact schizophrenic patients from the WHO Determinants of Outcome project. The patients were those living with family members who had been interviewed initially to determine their levels of expressed emotion (EE). The interview was repeated for 74% of the relatives at one-year follow-up. A dramatic reduction had occurred in each of the EE components and in the global index. No rural relative was rated as high EE at follow-up. Of the patients included in the one-year follow-up, 86% were followed for two years. In contrast to the one-year findings, the global EE index at initial interview did not predict relapse of schizophrenia over the subsequent two years. However, there was a significant association between initial hostility and subsequent relapse. The better outcome of this cohort of schizophrenic patients compared with samples from the West is partly attributable to tolerance and acceptance by family members.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1990 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brown, G. W., Birley, J. L. T. & Wing, J. K. (1972) Influence of family life on the course of schizophrenic disorders: a replication. British Journal of Psychiatry, 121, 241258.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jenkins, J. H., Karno, M., de la Selva, A., et al (1986) Expressed emotion in cross-cultural context: familial responses to schizophrenic illness among Mexican Americans. In Treatment of Schizophrenia (eds Goldstein, M. J., Hand, I. & Hahlweg, K.). Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Leff, J. P. & Vaughn, C. (1981) The role of maintenance therapy and relatives' expressed emotion on relapse of schizophrenia: a two-year follow-up. British Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 102104.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leff, J. P., Kuipers, L., Berkowitz, R., et al (1982) A controlled trial of social intervention in the families of schizophrenic patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 141, 121134.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leff, J. P. & Vaughn, C. (1985) Expressed Emotion in Families: Its Significance for Mental Illness. New York: Guilford.Google Scholar
Leff, J. P., Kuipers, L., Berkowitz, R., et al (1985) A controlled trial of social intervention in the families of schizophrenic patients: two year follow-up. British Journal of Psychiatry, 146, 594600.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leff, J. P. & Vaughn, C. (1986) First episodes of schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 215216.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leff, J. P., Wig, N., Ghosh, A., et al (1987) III. Influence of relatives' expressed emotion on the course of schizophrenia in Chandigarh. British Journal of Psychiatry, 151, 166173.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leff, J. P., Berkowitz, R., Shavit, N., et al (1989) A trial of family therapy v. a relatives group for schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 5866.Google Scholar
MacMillan, J. F., Gold, A., Crow, T. J., et al (1986) The Northwick Park study of first episodes of schizophrenia. IV. Expressed emotion and relapse. British Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 133143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCreadie, R. G. & Phillips, K. (1988) The Nithsdale Schizophrenia Survey VII. Does relatives' high expressed emotion predict relapse? British Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 477481.Google Scholar
Sartorius, N., Jablensky, A., Korten, A., et al (1986) Early manifestations and first contact incidence of schizophrenia in different cultures: a preliminary report on the initial evaluation phase of the WHO Collaborative Study of Determinants of Outcome of Severe Mental Disorders. Psychological Medicine, 16, 909928.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vaughn, C. & Leff, J. P. (1976) The influence of family and social factors on the course of psychiatric illness: a comparison of schizophrenic and depressed neurotic patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 129, 125137.Google Scholar
Wig, N., Menon, D. K., Bedi, H., et al (1987a) Expressed emotion and schizophrenia in North India. I. The cross cultural transfer of ratings of relatives' expressed emotion. British Journal of Psychiatry, 151, 156160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wig, N., Menon, D. K., Bedi, H., et al (1987b) Expressed emotion and schizophrenia in North India. II. Distribution of expressed emotion components among relatives of schizophrenic patients in Aarhus and Chandigarh. British Journal of Psychiatry, 151, 160165.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorius, N. (1974) The Description and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms: An Instruction Manual for the PSE and CATEGO System. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (1979) Schizophrenia: An International Follow-up Study. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.