Expressed emotion and the course of late-life depression

This study examined rates of expressed emotion (EE) indexed by the Five Minute Speech Sample (FMSS; A. B. Magana et al., 1986) in adult children or spouses of 54 elderly patients hospitalized for major depressive disorder. It also examined whether EE was related to course of psychiatric illness in these elderly patients over 1 year. Among the family members, 40% were classified as high EE. EE was not significantly related to relapse in the total sample. However, there was an interaction between EE and relationship to the patient (i.e., spouse or adult child) on 1-year clinical outcomes of the elderly. Among adult children caring for older patients, high-EE status predicted higher rates of patient relapse and lower rates of complete and sustained recovery from depression than low EE. In contrast, there was a trend association among spouses between high EE and lower rates of relapse as well as higher rates of complete and sustained recovery.