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The Nithsdale Schizophrenia Survey

VI. Relatives' Expressed Emotion: Prevalence, Patterns, and Clinical Assessment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

R. G. McCreadie  and
A. D. T. Robinson
R. G. McCreadie*
Affiliation:
Crichton Royal Hospital, Dumfries DG1 4TG
A. D. T. Robinson
Affiliation:
Crichton Royal Hospital; MRC Unit for Epidemiological Studies in Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Morningside Park, Edinburgh EH10 5HF
*
Correspondence
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Abstract

A review of all known schizophrenics (n = 142) in Nithsdale, Scotland, found 50% were living with relatives or friends. Of these, 32% had high contact with a relative showing high expressed emotion (EE); put another way, 87% of all Nithsdale schizophrenics were not living in a high contact/high EE family. Parents were more critical than spouses, and more showed emotional over-involvement. A retrospective review showed a trend, not of statistical significance, towards a higher admission rate to in-patient care in patients from high EE homes. Of relatives believed by a consultant psychiatrist to be neither critical nor hostile, 80% fell into the low EE category, but only 44% thought hostile or critical belonged to the high EE category; that is, the clinician had a wider view of high EE than the Camberwell Family Interview. Relatives' scores on a short patient-rejection scale were higher in high EE than in low EE relatives, but the wide scatter of scores suggested the scale could not be used to identify an individual relative with high EE.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 150 , Issue 5 , May 1987 , pp. 640 - 644
Copyright
Copyright © 1987 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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