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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 

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