family dysfunction explanation of schizophrenia

• The family dysfunction explanation of schizophrenia suggests family conflict leads to stress and confusion in individuals, which causes the development of schizophrenia, including both positive and negative symptoms.
• Bateson 1956 proposed the double bind theory which suggests schizophrenia can develop through stress and confusion of experiencing contradictory messages, confusing them on how to behave.
• A high degree of expressed emotion is when members of a family speak to each other in negative ways, consistently expressing lots of criticism and complaints about what everyone else is doing.
• The family dysfunction explanation of schizophrenia suggests stress and confusion caused by family conflict leads to symptoms of schizophrenia.
• High expressed emotion includes consistent criticism of others, a negative over-involvement in each others lives and complaints and general negativity being heavily expressed.
• Supporting evidence for family dysfunction explanation of schizophrenia. Berger 1965 interviewed schizophrenic patients and a control group of non-schizophrenics. It was found schizophrenics experienced significantly more double binds than non-schizophrenics. This is positive as it supports the idea that double binds cause schizophrenia. However, Berger's findings rely on self-report data which may not be suitable for participants with dysfunctional mental processes and results may be influenced by demand characteristics as a result of investigator effects.
• Supporting evidence for expressed emotion contributing to schizophrenia. Vaughn and Leff conducted observations to investigate the family relationships of people with schizophrenia and found patients were more likely to relapse if there was a high degree of expressed emotion within the family. This is positive as it supports the idea that expressed emotion causes schizophrenia.
• Individual differences in response to family conflict. Altorfer et al 1988 observed the degree of expressed emotion that families displayed and found most patients who experienced a high degree of expressed emotion sweated lots when they were criticised, indicating that they showed an increase in stress when they were criticised. However, 1/4 didn't show a stress response when criticised. This is problematic as this indicates there are individual differences in patients responses to high expressed emotion.
• Family therapy is a psychological intervention that involves both the patient and their family members. Family therapy aims to reduce the level of family conflict that the patient experiences.
• Family therapy involves teaching new coping strategies to manage the patients’ symptoms, educating the family about the symptoms of schizophrenia and changing the family’s communication style
• Supporting evidence for family therapy. Pharoah et al conducted a review of studies to investigate the effectiveness of combining family therapy and medication and found those who received family therapy were more likely to take their medication consistently. This is positive as it demonstrates the positive implications of family therapy for schizophrenia. However, there was no clear evidence family therapy reduced symptoms of schizophrenia.
• Cost-effective. NICE 2009 conducted a review found that family therapy reduces the likelihood of relapse and is cost effective for the NHS. This is positive as it is a beneficial and effective treatment.