Expressed Emotion, Appraisal and Coping by Patients with Recent-onset Schizophrenia: A Pilot Investigation
Titel:
Expressed Emotion, Appraisal and Coping by Patients with Recent-onset Schizophrenia: A Pilot Investigation
Auteur:
Rosenfarb, Irwin S. Ventura, Joseph Nuechterlein, Keith H. Goldstein, Michael J. Snyder, Karen S. Hwang, Sun
Verschenen in:
Cognitive behaviour therapy
Paginering:
Jaargang 28 (1999) nr. 1 pagina's 3-8
Jaar:
1999-01-01
Inhoud:
This pilot study sought to follow up on indications that patients from households with high levels of expressed emotion (EE) differ from those from households with low levels of EE in ways not assessed in typical symptom rating profiles. We examined how patients appraised and coped with a prominent societal stressor. Soon after the start of the Gulf War, 22 patients with recent-onset schizophrenia living in Los Angeles appraised the stressor and completed a coping questionnaire. Results indicated that patients from high-EE homes were likely to use emotion-based confrontational methods to cope with the crisis, while patients from low-EE environments were likely to use avoidance and denial. Patients from high-EE homes thus coped with this non-familial, societal stressor in a way similar to the way in which they have been observed to cope with family conflict: they more readily expressed their anger and frustration than patients from low-EE homes. These pilot data suggest that increased attention should be directed toward those patient behaviours that may be associated with either an increase or decrease in negative affective behaviour from relatives. It may also be fruitful to consider more broadly the adaptive and maladaptive features of the preferred coping strategies of patients from high-EE and low-EE environments.