Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-2jptb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-22T21:20:56.620Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Interaction of Life Events and Relatives’ Expressed Emotion in Schizophrenia and Depressive Neurosis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Julian Leff  and
Christine Vaughn
Julian Leff
Affiliation:
MRC Social Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF
Christine Vaughn
Affiliation:
Family Factors Project, Mental Health Clinical Research Center for the Study of Schizophrenia, Camarillo, California 93010
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

A history of life events in the three months before onset of illness was taken in a group of schizophrenic and a group of depressed neurotic in-patients. The Expressed Emotion (EE) of the patients’ key relatives was measured. There was no difference between the schizophrenic and depressed patients in the rate of events in the three month period before onset or in the proportion of undesirable events. However, the two groups exhibited significantly different patterns of interaction between life events and relatives’ EE. Schizophrenic patients living with high EE relatives had a low rate of life events compared with those living with low EE relatives, whereas depressives living with high criticism relatives had a high rate of events compared with those living with low criticism relatives. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to schizophrenic and depressive patients’ differential vulnerability to environmental stress.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 136 , Issue 2 , February 1980 , pp. 146 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1980 

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

Birley, J. L. T. & Brown, G. W. (1970) Crises and life changes preceding the onset or relapse of acute schizophrenia: clinical aspects. British Journal of Psychiatry, 116, 327–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, G. W. (1974) Meaning, measurement and stress of life events. In Stress/id Life Events: Their Mature and Effects (eds. Dohrenwend, B. S. and Dohrenwend, B. P.). New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W. & Birley, J. L. T. (1968) Crises and life changes and the onset of schizophrenia. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, 9, 203–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
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, 241–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, G. W. & Harris, T. (1978) Social Origins of Depression: A Study of Psychiatric Disorder in Women. London: Tavistock Publications.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W., Monck, E. M., Carstairs, G. M. & Wing, J. K. (1962) Influence of family life on the course of schizophrenic illness. British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine, 16, 55–68.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W., Ní Bhrolcháin, M. & Harris, T. (1975) Social class and psychiatric disturbance among women in an urban population. Sociology, 9, 225–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, G. W. & Rutter, M. (1966) The measurement of family activities and relationships: a methodological study. Human Relations, 19, 241–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, T. H. & Rahe, R. H. (1967) The social readjustment rating scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 11, 213–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacobs, S. C., Prusoff, B. A. & Paykel, E. S. (1974) Recent life events in schizophrenia and depression. Psychological Medicine, 4, 444–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leff, J. P., Hirsch, S. R., Gaind, R., Rohde, P. D. & Stevens, B. C. (1973) Life events and maintenance therapy in schizophrenic relapse. British Journal of Psychiatry, 123, 659–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paykel, E. S. (1971) Classification of depressed patients: a cluster analysis derived grouping. British Journal of Psychiatry, 118, 275–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vaughn, C. E. & Leff, J. P. (1976a) The influence of family and social factors on the course of psychiatric illness. British Journal of Psychiatry, 129, 125–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vaughn, C. E. & Leff, J. P. (1976b) The measurement of expressed emotion in the families of psychiatric patients. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 15, 157–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorius, N. (1974) The Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.