EXPRESSED EMOTION AND RELAPSE IN ALCOHOLIC PATIENTS

Although family members' expressed emotion (EE) predicts patients' ele vated relapse rates in schizophrenia and mood disorders, little is kno wn about the relationship between EE and relapse in alcoholism. For 86 alcoholic patients (78 men, 8 women), the association between the spo use's EE and the alcoholic patient's subsequent relapse status in the 12 months after the couple began an outpatient behavioral marital ther apy (BMT) program for alcoholism was examined. Alcoholic patients with high EE spouses, when compared with their counterparts with low EE sp ouses, were more likely to relapse, had a shorter time to relapse, and drank on a greater percentage of days in the 12 months after starting BMT. EE continued to be associated with relapse after patients' age, education, and alcohol problem severity were taken into account. Great er use of Antabuse and more sessions of BMT were associated with reduc ed relapse for alcoholic patients with high EE spouses.