Modification of family expressed emotion after a psychosocial intervention: stability in time

Abstract

Introduction. There is some controversy about whether expressed emotion (EE) tends to remain stable or fluctuates in time and there are very few studies on EE evolution and its subscales once a family intervention has been performed. Better knowledge about its behavior in time would have important theoretical and clinical implications.

Methods. We have studied changes in EE and its subscales that are produced in a cohort of 37 relatives of schizophrenic patients to whom a familiar intervention orientated to reducing environmental stress was performed. Changes were analyzed according to three cross-sectional moments of evaluation: one moment previous to intervention, another one when it was finished and finally, one at five years of finishing it.

Results. In this work, the EE levels tend to vary in time. These changes are mainly produced in the period when the family intervention is carried out, at the expense of decreasing the levels of emotional overinvolvement. Between the end of therapy and the analysis carried out five years later, levels remain stable. The few changes that take place in this period, if any, are associated to variables of clinical severity and social adjustment.

Conclusions. Family intervention appears as the determining factor for reducing EE levels, whereas productive clinical severity and the patient's social adjustment condition increases in their levels.