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The Role of Maintenance Therapy and Relatives' Expressed Emotion in Relapse of Schizophrenia: A Two-Year Follow-up

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Julian Leff  and
Christine Vaughn
Julian Leff*
Affiliation:
MRC Social Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF
Christine Vaughn
Affiliation:
Family Factors Project, Mental Health Clinical Research Center for the Study of Schizophrenia, Camarillo, California 93010
*
∗ Present address: Neuropsychology Research Unit, Friern Hospital, Friern Barnet Road, London N11 3BP
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Summary

A two-year follow-up study was conducted, mainly from case notes, of patients who had originally taken part in a study of the influence of relatives' expressed emotion on schizophrenic relapse. It was found that in the two years following discharge from hospital patients from high expressed emotion homes had a significantly greater relapse rate than those from low expressed emotion homes.

The prophylactic effect of maintenance drugs was no longer evident for patients from high expressed emotion homes at the two-year follow-up. By contrast, a significant protective effect of maintenance therapy emerged for patients from low expressed emotion homes.

The interpretation of these findings is discussed.

Information

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 139 , Issue 2 , August 1981 , pp. 102 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1981 

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References

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