The Salford Family Intervention Project: relapse rates of schizophrenia at five and eight years.

Background: This study assessed the long-term effects of family intervention on schizophrenic relapse.

Method: Forty schizophrenic patients who had participated in a family intervention trial and who had not experienced relapse at two years after discharge from the index admission were traced through case notes and hospital records. The percentage of patients experiencing a relapse was estimated for patients in the family intervention group, the high-EE control group, and the low-EE control group, at five years and eight years after discharge.

Community management of schizophrenia. A two-year follow-up of a behavioural intervention with families.

The relapse and readmission rates of schizophrenic patients who participated in a controlled trial of a nine-month behavioural family intervention trial based on the EE status of their relatives are presented at two years. The patients who received the behavioural family intervention had lower rates of relapse and readmission than patients from high-EE homes who had received a short educational programme or routine treatment. The relapse rate of the behavioural family intervention group (33%) was the same as that of the low-EE group (33%), and significantly lower than that of the non-intervention high-EE group (59%).

The community management of schizophrenia. A controlled trial of a behavioural intervention with families to reduce relapse.

Schizophrenic patients were recruited into a trial of a prophylactic behavioural intervention with families. Families with at least one high Expressed Emotion (EE) relative were randomly allocated to one of four intervention groups: Behavioural Intervention Enactive; Behavioural Intervention Symbolic; Education Only; Routine Treatment. Patients from low-EE families were randomly allocated to two groups: Education Only or Routine Treatment.

The assessment of psychophysiological reactivity to the expressed emotion of relatives of schizophrenic patients.

The measure of expressed emotion (EE) of the relative has been found to be an important predictor of schizophrenic relapse. Electrodermal measures were recorded when the schizophrenic patient was talking to an experimenter, and when the patient was talking to a relative. Although there were no differences during the relative-absent period, patients with a high-EE relative present exhibited significantly higher frequencies of non-specific skin-conductance responses (NS-SCRs) than patients with a low-EE relative present.