The relationship between psychosocial and cognitive functioning in schizophrenic patients and expressed emotion and communication deviance in their parents.

The relationship between the family variables of expressed emotion (EE) and communication deviance (CD) and patient attributes of cognitive functions and clinical symptoms were examined. Eleven schizophrenic patients and their parents were evaluated at the beginning and the end of a 2-year treatment programme. The test battery for the patients included the Global Assessment Scale (GAS), Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and a cognitive test battery. Parents' CD was evaluated with the Communication Conflict Situation and their EE level with Camberwell Family Interview. A significant correlation between patients' GAS score and mother's criticism score was found. The cognitive variable of backward masking was the measure that most consistently showed a close relationship to parent's EE level. The masking measure also differentiated significantly between parents who improved and parents who did not improve on EE during the 2-year treatment period. An empirical basis for a link between patients' cognitive functioning and parents' style of communication was not found.