Collaboration with families for the rehabilitation of schizophrenic patients and the concept of expressed emotion

Recent interest in community care of schizophrenic patients has led to publication of a number of studies that deal with patients' rehabilitation in their families. Joint efforts of psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers have produced a number of techniques for collaboration with families of schizophrenic patients, including techniques based on the concept of expressed emotion. This concept is presented with reference to its spectrum consistency in time, generalizability to nonfamily setups, relationship to relapse, prevalence in disorders other than schizophrenia and usefulness in comparison to other concepts in family therapy of schizophrenia. Caution is urged in not incriminating the family in causing relapse, after the quiet abandonment of older theories that blamed families for initiating the illness of schizophrenic members.