Family Caretaking and Expressed Emotion: An Evaluation

Recently more and more families have assumed the role of primary caregiver for their schizophrenic relatives. The author enumerates the needs of caregiving families and reviews the work of researchers involved in family therapy approaches to the treatment of schizophrenia. After discussing theories based on the concept of expressed emotion—that is, the amount of hostility, intrusiveness, or criticism expressed by family members toward the schizophrenic relative—the author examines the effects of contact with families exhibiting high expressed emotion on patient relapse. He suggests that high expressed emotion is not a characteristic unique to families of schizophrenic patients and calls for further standardized research among families who care for individuals with other mental disorders.