Yet, despite the importance of depression
in schizophrenia, only one study, to our knowledge,
has examined the psychosocial factors that may
precipitate a depressive episode. The purpose of this
brief report, therefore, was to examine whether
familial expressed emotion (EE) might be associated
with the escalation of depressive symptoms in
schizophrenia. Research suggests that not only is EE
one of the most potent psychosocial predictors of
psychotic relapse in schizophrenia but it also
appears to be an even more potent predictor of
relapse for those experiencing a major depressive
episode (see Butzlaff and Hooley for a review).
Thus, we hypothesized that EE may also play a significant
role in the escalation of depressive symptoms