A Survey Of Family Members' Expressed Emotion Towards The Inpatients With Anxiety Disorder And A Nine Months Follow-up By A Comparison Of EE With Symptom Relapse Of Anxiety Disorders

Objective: To assess the expressed emotion among family members of inpatients with anxiety disorder and to find a correlation of EE to symptom relapse in anxiety disorders.Method: The family members of 56 inpatients with anxiety disorder were divided into two groups, High Expressed Emotion(HEE) versus Low Expressed Emotion(LEE), with Philips' 10-subscale Chinese version of the Camberwell Family Interview (CFI-CV). The data of times of symptom relapse, duration of rehospitalization, loss of working days, deduction of income and medical expenses were collected at the end of nine months follow-up.Results: There was no significant difference between follow-up period in EE of two groups. But rate of symptom relapse was higher in HEE group(52.4%) than that in LEE group(27.3%). We found that the scores of emotional over-involvement was higher in parents than that in spouses, and in female relatives than that in male ones. The relatives' style of guardianship towards patient was active, during both acute and recovery phases of the illness, but most family members had little knowledge of the mental disorder. We also found that the emotional over-involvement(over-protection), family member's knowledge of the mental disorder, family member's EE, approval were significantly correlated with symptom relapse of anxiety disorders.Conclusion: 1.Family EE was related to symptom relapse of anxiety disorders. The relapse rate of the patients in HEE family was higher than the one in LEE family (52.4% vs. 27.3%) .2.The results of this study was in favor of EE's attribution model to EE's interaction model.3.The negative expressed emotion(Over-protection) and positive expressed emotion (approval) were positively correlated to symptom relapse of anxiety disorder.4.Besides traditional education, medication and psychotherapy, to improve EE among relatives of patients with anxiety disorder will be beneficial to maintain the functional and social rehabilitation. 5.A sophisticated evaluation of family members' EE and understanding of its operating mechanism could be the basis for family intervention, which contribute to the success of family therapy.