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Lithium Prophylaxis and Expressed Emotion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Stefan Priebe*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Psychiatry, Freie Universitat Berlin (West), Platanenallee 19, D-1000 Berlin 19
Christiane Wildgrube
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology and Lithium Clinic
Bruno Müller-Oerlinghausen
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Clinical Psychopharmacology and Lithium Clinic, Psychiatrische Klinik und Poliklinik der Freien Universität Berlin (West), Eschenallee 3, D-1000 Berlin 19
*
Correspondence

Abstract

Expressed emotion (EE) in key relatives of 21 patients with bipolar affective or schizoaffective psychoses was assessed by the CFI. All patients had been on prophylactic lithium for at least three years and were without psychotic symptoms at interview. The relationship between relatives' EE status and patients' course of illness was studied both retrospectively and prospectively. Two critical remarks designated high EE. The relatives' EE status was not related to number of hospital admissions or to severity and length of recurrences if the entire period of lithium treatment is considered as a whole. However, patients living with high-EE relatives showed a significantly poorer response during the three years before interview, and an even poorer response in the nine-month follow-up.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1989 

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Footnotes

The findings presented here are part of the thesis of CW.

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