Expressed emotion in the families of young people with epilepsy

Abstract

The parents of 41 young people with epilepsy who were living in the same household as the patients were interviewed using the Camberwell Family Interview, and ratings of expressed emotion (EE) carried out according to standard criteria. The presence of any seizures in the 6 months prior to interview was found to be a predictor of EE (p= 0.0017). Absolute seizure frequency, as well as presence or absence of seizures was also found to vary with the EE score. Fathers may exhibit high EE by critical comments, mothers by emotional over involvement. Although it is unclear whether high EE is the result of seizures, or whether high EE makes seizures more likely to occur, an intervention study aimed at assessing the effect of lowering parental EE levels on young people’s seizure frequency might be worth pursuing.