Expressed emotion and first-admission schizophrenia. Nine-month follow-up in a French cultural environment.

A study of 36 French-speaking families in Geneva identified 66% of high-EE household. At nine-month follow-up, the relapse rate for the high-EE group (33%) was significantly higher than for the low-EE group (0%). These results seem to confirm the relevance of EE as predictor of relapse. However, in our sample, it appears that one component of EE, critical comments, was principally responsible for the prognostic validity.