Measuring Perceived Expressed Emotion of Elderly with Schizophrenia

Abstract

Environmental factors, including families and staff, have influence on the prognosis of schizophrenic patients. The Theory of Expressed Emotion hypothesizes that patients living with high expressed emotion relatives have higher relapse rate than those living with low expressed emotion relatives. This study measures the patients' perception of expressed emotion of the staff's attitude and to examine the patients' relapse rate. Those patients were elderly with schizophrenia living in a mental rehabilitating setting in the community. In this study, the Chinese level of Expressed Emotion Scale has shown a good reliability. The relapse rate was 15.4 percent for those elderly rated in high Level of Expressed Emotion group and 10 percent for those in low Level of Expressed Emotion group at a one-year follow-up period. The McNemar test has shown that the difference of relapse rate between two groups reached statistical significance. Although health care staffs have received professional training in dealing with psychiatric patients, they are also vulnerable to emotional exhaustion.