Expressed emotion and Milan systemic intervention: a pilot study on families of people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia

This article presents the results of a pilot, study carried out on families of people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (high-frequency users of psychiatric services) using a standardized version of systemic family intervention based on the Milan Approach ('Circular Interview'). We used expressed emotion (EE) to compare and assess two homogeneous samples of families, a treatment group (n =10) and a control group (n = 8). We found that families participating in circular interviews showed a reduction in criticism, while 30% of their members with a diagnosis of schizophrenia relapsed. Families not receiving treatment showed no changes in EE levels, while 62.5% of their members with a diagnosis of schizophrenia relapsed. Although the difference in relapse rates is not statistically significant, these results justify further studies on the use of nondirective systemic intervention with families of people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. © 2000 The Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice.