Author(s)

Shinji Shimodera, Yukiko Yonekura, Sosei Yamaguchi, Aoi Kawamura, Masafumi Mizuno, Shimpei Inoue, Toshi A. Furukawa, Yoshio Mino

Department of Cognitive-Behavioral Medicine, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine/School of Public Health, Kyoto, Japan.
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Kochi Medical School, Kochi University, Kochi, Japan.
Department of Neuropsychiatry, Toho University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation, National Institute of Mental Health, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan.
Department of Psychiatry, Mino Clinic, Okayama, Japan.
Department of Social Welfare, Kansai University of Social Welfare, Hyogo, Japan.

The relationships between expressed emotion (EE) of the families and the course of bipolar disorder have been examined only in a limited number of cohort studies. No study has yet been reported from Asia. The subjects were 12 patients that had been diagnosed with bipolar I disorder according to DSM-IV and their 12 key family members. The families of the patients were interviewed using the Camberwell Family Interview (CFI) within 2 weeks of the admission of the patients, and their EE were evaluated. The patients were then followed up for 9 months after their discharge from the hospital. The patients were divided into a high-EE group and a low-EE group using the cut-off based on the number of critical comments (CC) and emotional overinvolvement (EOI), and the 9-month relapse risk was compared. When the subjects with 3 or more CC or an EOI score of 3 or more were regarded as the high-EE group, and the others as the low-EE group, the 9-month relapse risk was 100% (3/3) for the high EE group and 0% (0/9) for the low EE group. (Fisher’s exact test p = 0.005) EE based on the CFI appear to be correlated with relapse in bipolar I disorder in Japan.

Expressed Emotion; Family; Bipolar Disorder

Shimodera, S. , Yonekura, Y. , Yamaguchi, S. , Kawamura, A. , Mizuno, M. , Inoue, S. , A. Furukawa, T. and Mino, Y. (2012) Bipolar I disorder and expressed emotion of families: A cohort study in Japan. Open Journal of Psychiatry, 2, 258-261. doi: 10.4236/ojpsych.2012.24035.