Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T06:39:37.290Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Emotional Overinvolvement in Parents of Patients with Schizophrenia or Related Psychosis: Demographic and Clinical Predictors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Håvard Bentsen*
Affiliation:
Department Group of Psychiatry, University of Oslo, and Gaustad Hospital, Oslo, Norway
Birgitte Boye
Affiliation:
Blakstad Hospital, Asker
Ole Georg Munkvold
Affiliation:
Blakstad Hospital, Asker
Tor Helge Notland
Affiliation:
Blakstad Hospital, Asker
Annette B. Lersbryggen
Affiliation:
Blakstad Hospital, Asker
Kirsti H. Oskarsson
Affiliation:
Blakstad Hospital, Asker
Ingun Ulstein
Affiliation:
Gaustad Hospital, Oslo, Norway
Gunvor Uren
Affiliation:
Blakstad Hospital, Asker
Heidi Bjørge
Affiliation:
Gaustad Hospital, Oslo
Rolf Berg-Larsen
Affiliation:
Blakstad Hospital, Asker
Odd Lingjærde
Affiliation:
Department Group of Psychiatry, University of Oslo, and Gaustad Hospital, Oslo, Norway
Ulrik F. Malt
Affiliation:
Department Group of Psychiatry, University of Oslo
*
Dr H. Bentsen, PO Box 33, Gaustad, N-0320 Oslo, Norway

Abstract

Background

Parental emotional overinvolvement (EOI) may entail a worse outcome in schizophrenia. In the present study we examined demographic and clinical predictors of EOI.

Method

The predictors were examined in a Norwegian sample of 41 recently admitted patients (schizophrenia or schizophreniform disorder) and 66 parents. Parents' expressed emotion was assessed by the Camberwell Family Interview.

Results

Regression analyses showed that higher EOI was significantly related, on the part of the parent to being a mother, single, spending more time with the patient; and, on the part of the patient, to no substance misuse, more anxiety–depression, and less uncritical and aggressive behaviour. EOI was not linked to previous hospital admissions.

Conclusion

Our analyses indicate that characteristics of the parent and of the parent–patient dyad seem to be the most important determinants of EOI. EOI is probably not linked to psychotic relapse, but rather to affective disturbances in the patient.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1996 

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

Altman, D. G. (1991) Practical Statistics for Medical Research (1st edn). London: Chapman and Hall.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (1987) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn, revised) (DSM–III–R). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Bebbington, P. & Kuipers, L. (1994) The predictive utility of expressed emotion in schizophrenia: an aggregate analysis. Psychological Medicine, 24, 707718.Google Scholar
Bentsen, H., Boye, B., Munkvold, O.-G., et al (1996a) Interrater reliability of expressed emotion ratings based on Camberwell Family Interview. Psychological Medicine, 26, 821828.Google Scholar
Bentsen, H., Munkvold, O.-G., Notland, T. H., et al (1996b) The interrater reliability of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, in press.3.3.CO;2-A>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bentsen, H., Notland, T. H., Boye, B., et al (submitted) Criticism and hostility in relatives of patients with schizophrenia or related psychosis: Demographic and clinical predictors. Acta Psychiatrica Sandinavica, submitted.Google Scholar
Blair, C., Freeman, C. & Cull, A. (1995) The families of anorexia nervosa and cystic fibrosis patients. Psychological Medicine, 25, 985993.Google Scholar
Bornstein, R. F. (1992) The dependent personality: developmental, social, and clinical perspectives. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 323.Google Scholar
Brown, C. 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
Diamond, D. & Doane, J. A. (1994) Disturbed attachment and negative affective style. An intergenerational spiral. British Journal of Psychiatry, 164, 770781.Google Scholar
Dixon, W. J. (1992) BMDP Statistical Software Manual. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Dossetor, D. R., Nichol, A. R., Strecth, D. D., et al (1994) A study of expressed emotion in the parental primary carers of adolescents with intellectual impairment Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 38, 487499.Google Scholar
Goldstein, M. J. (1978) Further data concerning the relation between premorbid adjustment and paranoid symptomatology. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 4, 236243.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gotlib, I. H., Mount, J. H., Cordy, N. I., et al (1988) Depression and perceptions of early parenting: a longitudinal investigation. British Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 2427.Google Scholar
Guy, W. (1976) ECDEU Assessment Manual for Psychopharmacology (revised). Washington, DC: US Department of Health, Education and Welfare.Google Scholar
Hosmer, D. W. & Lemeshow, S. (1989) Applied Logistic Regression. New York: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Ivanovic, M., Vuletic, Z. & Bebbington, P. (1994) Expressed emotion in the families of patients with schizophrenia and its influence on the course of illness. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 29, 6165.Google Scholar
Kay, S. R. & Sevy, S. (1990) Pyramidical model in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 16, 537545.Google Scholar
Bentsen, H., Fiszbein, A. & Opler, L. A. (1987) The positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) for schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 13, 261276.Google Scholar
Kleinbaum, D. G., Kupper, L. L. & Muller, K. E. (1988) Applied Regression Analysis and Other Multivariate Methods. Boston, MA: PWS-Kent.Google Scholar
Leff, J. (1994) Working with the families of schizophrenic patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 164, 7176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leff, J. & Vaughn, C. E. (1985) Expressed Emotion in Families. Its Significance for Mental Illness. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Levene, J. E. (1991) The Influence of Expressed Emotion and Family Interaction on the Course of Illness in Schizophrenia. PhD thesis, University of Toronto.Google Scholar
Levy, D. M. (1943) Maternal Overprotection. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Moline, R. A., Singh, S., Morris, A., et al (1985) Family expressed emotion and relapse in schizophrenia in 24 urban American patients. American Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 10781081.Google Scholar
Mueser, K. T., Bellack, A. S., Wade, J. H., et al (1993) Expressed emotion, social skill, and response to negative affect in schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 102, 339351.Google Scholar
Neuhaus, J. M. (1992) Statistical methods for longitudinal and clustered designs with binary responses. Statistical Methods in Medical Research, 1, 249273.Google Scholar
Norusis, M. J. (1990) SPSS/PC+ Statistics 4.0 for IBM PC/XT/AT and PS/2. Chicago, IL: SPSS Inc.Google Scholar
Parker, G. (1983) Parental Overprotection. A Risk Factor in Psychosocial Development. New York: Grune & Stratton.Google Scholar
Parker, G. & Lipscombe, P. (1981) Influences on maternal overprotection. British Journal of Psychiatry, 138, 303311.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parker, G. & Johnson, P. (1987) Parenting and schizophrenia: an Australian study of expressed emotion. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 21, 6066.Google Scholar
Pérusse, D., Neale, M. C., Heath, A. C., et al (1994) Human parental behavior Evidence for genetic influence and potential implication for gene-culture transmission. Behavior Genetics, 24, 327335.Google Scholar
Strachan, A. M., Feingold, D., Goldstein, M. J., et al (1989) Is expressed emotion an index of a transactional process? II. Patient's coping style. Family Process, 28, 169181.Google Scholar
Stubbe, D. E., Zahner, G. E. P., Goldstein, M. J., et al (1993) Diagnostic specificity of a brief measure of expressed emotion: a community study of children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 34, 139154.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tambs, K., Harris, J. R. & Magnus, P. (1995) Sex-specific causal factors and effects of common environment for symptoms of anxiety and depression in twins. Behavior Genetics, 25, 3344.Google Scholar
Thomasgard, M. & Metz, W. P. (1993) Parental overprotection revisited. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 24, 6780.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vaughn, C. F. & Leff, J. P. (1976) The measurement of expressed emotion in families of psychiatric patients. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 15, 157165.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vaughn, C. E., Snyder, K. S., Jones, S., et al (1984) Family factors in schizophrenic relapse. Replication in California of British research on expressed emotion. Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 11691177.Google Scholar
West, M., Rose, M. S. & Adrieene, S. (1993) Anxious attachment as a determinant of adult psychopathology. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 181, 422427.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.