Expressed emotion and the escalation of depressive symptoms in individuals with recent-onset schizophrenia

This study examined whether expressed emotion (EE) predicts the emergence of depressive symptoms over a 1-year period in 109 individuals with recent-onset schizophrenia.

Cox proportional hazards regression analyses indicated that EE did not predict the emergence of depressive symptoms. The results also indicated that the EE factors (criticism, hostility and emotional overinvolvement), when examined individually, also did not predict the emergence of depressive symptoms.

Given the large number of patients in the study who were followed up for 1 year and another study's finding, using a subset of patients from the current study, of a significant relationship between EE and psychotic relapse, the data suggest that whereas EE is related to both psychotic relapse in individuals with recent-onset schizophrenia and depressive relapse in individuals with major depressive disorder, EE does not appear to predict depressive exacerbation in individuals with recent-onset schizophrenia.