EXPRESSED EMOTION AND SOCIAL FUNCTION

We examined whether expressed emotion (EE) influenced the social funct ioning of schizophrenia. Twenty-nine subjects meeting the diagnostic c riteria of ICD-9 or DSM-III-R participated in the study. The Camberwel l Family Interview was conducted to evaluate EE, and subjects were div ided into high EE and low EE groups. The subjects had been followed up for 9 months and their social functioning was compared between the tw o groups as assessed with the Katz Adjustment Scales. In the high EE g roup, levels of both performance of socially-expected activities and f ree-time activities slightly declined at follow-up. In contrast, those in the low EE group improved and the score increase in the level of p erformance of socially-expected activities was significant (P < 0.05). We confirmed the relationship of families' EE status with social func tioning in schizophrenia. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.