Expressed emotion and psychiatric illness: From empirical data to clinicalpractice

The diagnosis of major mental illness in a close relative presents most fam ilies with a serious challenge. Yet how the family adapts to psychopatholog y in a loved one is of crucial importance for the shea-term course of the p atient' s illness. A central predictor variable in this area is the constru ct of expressed emotion (EE). This article highlights some of what we curre ntly know about EE in an effort to provide information of relevance to thos e involved in the development and implementation of family-based approaches to the treatment of major mental disorders.