Family Dysfunction

• schizophrenogenic mother

  • cold, rejecting, controlling
  • creates a family climate full of tension and secrecy
  • leads to delusions, paranoia
• double bind theory

  a risk factor for schizophrenia

  caused by a child being trapped between conflicting mixed messages

  where the outcome of this is usually manifested in schizophrenia symptoms
• double bind theory

  when a child 'gets it wrong', they are often punished with a withdrawal of love

  leaving them with a viewing of the world as dangerous and confusing

  reflected in disorganised thinking and delusions

  children will often develop psychosis to cope
• degree of expressed emotion

  • a high degree of expressed emotion can worsen the symptoms of schizophrenic patients and increase the likelihood of relapse and remission
• elements of expressed emotion

  • verbal criticism of the patient
  • hostility - negative attitude towards the patient as the family feels that the disorder is controllable
  • emotional over-involvement - family members blame themselves - guilt and concern. makes patients feel guilty and stressed
• Research by Kuipers et al

  • found that schizophrenia patients in households with high degrees of expressed emotion are 4x more likely to relapse than a patient who is in a household with a low degree of expressed emotion
• support for family relationships in childhood affecting risk of schizophrenia in adulthood

  Read et al reviewed 46 studies of child abuse and schizophrenia

  • around 70% of adult women inpatients and 60% of adult male inpatients had experienced a history of physical and/or sexual abuse during their childhood
  • however, information about childhood experiences was gathered after symptom development - where schizophrenia may have distorted recall of events. this may affect study validity
• one issue with family based explanations

  is that its led to parent-blaming

  parents who have already suffered watching their child develop schizophrenia and who are likely to have to bare life-long responsibility for their child

  may undergo further trauma by being blamed for their child's condition
• the family dysfunction theory ignores biological evidence for schizophrenia, putting blame on family members. alternate theory is genetic factors such as polygenetics and candidate genes