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The Nithsdale Schizophrenia Surveys. XI: Relatives' Expressed Emotion

Stability Over Five Years and its Relation to Relapse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

R. G. McCreadie ,
L. J. Robertson ,
D. J. Hall  and
I. Berry
R. G. McCreadie*
Affiliation:
Crichton Royal Hospital, Dumfries DG1 4TG
L. J. Robertson
Affiliation:
Southern General Hospital, Glasgow
D. J. Hall
Affiliation:
Dykebar Hospital, Paisley
I. Berry
Affiliation:
Newcastle Regional Health Authority
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

The level of expressed emotion (EE) in 32 relationships between relatives and schizophrenic patients was assessed on three separate occasions over five years. EE was high on all three occasions in 25% of relatives, low on all three in 38%, and fluctuating in 38%; that is, in the majority of relatives (63%) the level of EE was stable over time. Three relatives who had previously shown high EE had evidence of dementia at the time of the third assessment, and showed low EE. Fourteen patients relapsed at least once over five years; patients who relapsed were evenly spread throughout those living in a home in which EE was consistently high, consistently low, or fluctuating. However, patients living in low-EE homes who did relapse did so significantly less often than those who relapsed and were living in homes in which EE was high or fluctuating. At the time of relapse, EE was not consistently high, and some patients in consistently high-EE homes did not relapse at all over five years.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 162 , Issue 3 , March 1993 , pp. 393 - 397
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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