Coping strategies in relatives of people with schizophrenia before and after psychiatric admission

Background Most research on expressed emotion (EE) has used an empirical ap proach to describe relatives' ways of coping with people with schizophrenia . Aims To use the stress and coping model proposed by Lazarus and Folkman to examine how relatives coped with patients. Method Patients with DSM-III-R schizophrenia and their relatives were asses sed just after hospitalisation of the patients and nine months after discha rge. Both assessments included the symptoms of the patients and the coping strategies, burden, distress and levels of EE of the relatives. Results Fifty patients and 50 relatives were assessed at inclusion, and 31 patients and 36 relatives at follow-up. Coping strategies were used more fr equently at inclusion than at follow-up. Problem-focused coping was the str ategy used more often at both assessments. Avoidance coping was strongly as sociated with burden. distress and high EE at both assessments. Conclusions Ways of coping are influenced by relatives' perceptions of the situation with patients. Avoidance strategies seem to be less effective in regulating the distress of care-givers than problem-focused strategies. Declaration of interest M.S. funded by CNPq-Brasilia, Brazil.