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Longitudinal Study of the Stability of Expressed Emotion in Families of Schizophrenic Patients: A 9-Month Follow-Up

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2014

Asunción Santos ,
Alberto Espina ,
Begoña Pumar ,
Pilar González ,
Ana Ayerbe  and
Enrique García
Asunción Santos
Affiliation:
University of the Basque Country
Alberto Espina*
Affiliation:
University of the Basque Country
Begoña Pumar
Affiliation:
University of the Basque Country
Pilar González
Affiliation:
University of the Basque Country
Ana Ayerbe
Affiliation:
University of the Basque Country
Enrique García
Affiliation:
University of the Basque Country
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Dr. Alberto Espina, Dpto. Personalidad, Evaluación y Tratamientos Psicológicos. Facultad de Psicología.Universidad del País Vasco. Avda. Tolosa, 70. 20018 San Sebastián (Spain). Fax: 943-31-1055. E-mail: ptpeseia@ss.ehu.es
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Abstract

The goal of this paper is to study attitude stability in schizophrenics' relatives, as reflected in the expressed emotion (EE) construct. For this purpose, the EE of 32 families of schizophrenic patients was assessed by means of the Camberwell Family Interview (CFI, Brown, Birley, & Wing, 1972; Vaughn & Leff, 1976b), both initially and at a 9-month follow-up. The results obtained indicate that EE is stable in fathers, whereas in mothers, high EE seems to be influenced by stressful situations, because, when assessed in crisis, EE was not stable, but in-between crises, it was. These results are discussed, as well as their relevance in family interventions aimed at reducing EE, where clinicians should take into account that mothers' EE may drop because of its instability, and not because of the intervention. On the other hand, clinicians should focus especially on fathers, because their high EE is constant, which is stressful to the patient during the follow-up.

El objetivo de este trabajo es estudiar la estabilidad de las actitudes de los familiares de esquizofrénicos recogidas en el constructo emoción expresada (EE). Para ello, se evaluó la EE en un grupo de 32 familias de esquizofrénicos mediante la Camberwell Familiy Interview (CFI; Brown, Birley y Wing, 1972; Vaughn y Leff, 1976b)), repitiendo la evaluación a los 9 meses. Los resultados obtenidos indican que la EE es estable en los padres, mientras que en las madres parece que la alta EE está influida por las situaciones de crisis, ya que si se evalúa la EE en crisis no es estable y en los períodos intercrisis sí lo es. Estos resultados se comentan y valoran en relación con las intervenciones familiares dirigidas a reducir la EE, en las que debería tenerse en cuenta que la EE de las madres puede bajar por su inestabilidad, no por la intervención. Por otro lado, se debería incidir especialmente en los padres dado que la alta EE es constante y por lo tanto provoca estrés al paciente durante el seguimiento.

Keywords

expressed emotionstabilityschizophreniarelativesemoción expresadaesquizofreniaestabilidadfamiliares
Type
Articles
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , May 2001 , pp. 65 - 71
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2001

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