title: Expressed emotion of families and negative/depressive symptoms in schizophrenia: a cohort study in Japan.
abstract: This study investigated whether the Expressed Emotion (EE) status of families is associated with an increased risk of negative and depressive symptoms in schizophrenia. The subjects were 52 schizophrenic patients from mental hospitals in Kochi, Japan, who satisfied the DSM-III-R or ICD-9 criteria for schizophrenia. The Japanese version of the Camberwell Family Interview was administered to 73 key relatives of the patients within 2 weeks after admission. A certified rater evaluated the EE's status of each family, using an audiotaped interview and its transcript. Using cohort study design, the subjects were followed for 9 months after their discharge and were monitored for negative and depressive symptoms. Trained psychiatrists who were blind to the EE status of the patients' households administered the Brief Psychiatric Rating scale (BPRS) at discharge, and 9 months after discharge. Repeated-measures analyses of variance showed that EE effects were significant in Emotional withdrawal in all subjects, Depressive mood and Total depressive symptoms in non-relapsers. A multiple regression analyses revealed that EE's effect was significant only in Depressive mood in non-relapsers controlling confounding factors. In non-relapsers in positive symptoms, high EE families could make patients depressed. EE's effect on negative symptoms remains to be established.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, Okayama University Medical School, Japan. yoshmino@med.okayama-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mino
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Inoue
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shimodera
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tsuda
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications*; D004644:Emotions; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology