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Perception of Expressed Emotion Among Persons with Mental Illness

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Abstract

Expressed emotions refer to the affective attitudes and behaviors of relatives toward a family member. It has both positive and negative elements. It can be seen as an indicator of ‘emotional temperature’ in the home. The current study aims to explore persons with mental illness (PwMI) perception of expressed emotions in their relative and understand the family environment and factors related to it. An exploratory qualitative research study was conducted using focus group discussion among 18 PwMI who receive psychiatric rehabilitation services in a tertiary level psychiatric hospital in southern part of India. The collected qualitative data used thematic analysis with Atlas.ti software. Five major themes were identified from the study results. They are: Concept of illness, Negative elements of EE, and Positive elements of EE, Factors influencing the nature of EE and Future apprehensions. The present study explored patient’s perception of expressed emotions. Patients hailing from non-therapeutic family emotional climate may benefit from approaches aimed at reducing their vulnerability to a dysfunctional family environment.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the participants active involvement in this study.

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No financial support has been given to the author(s) for this research, authorship and/or publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nursing, NIMHANS, Bangalore, India

    Sailaxmi Gandhi, Narayanasamy Padmavathi, Rajil Raveendran, Maya Sahu & Jothimani Gurusamy

  2. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services, Department of Psychiatry, NIMHANS, Bangalore, India

    Prabhu Jadhav & Krishna Prasad Muliyala

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  1. Sailaxmi Gandhi
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  2. Narayanasamy Padmavathi
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  3. Rajil Raveendran
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  4. Prabhu Jadhav
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  5. Maya Sahu
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  6. Jothimani Gurusamy
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  7. Krishna Prasad Muliyala
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Correspondence to Narayanasamy Padmavathi.

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Gandhi, S., Padmavathi, N., Raveendran, R. et al. Perception of Expressed Emotion Among Persons with Mental Illness. J. Psychosoc. Rehabil. Ment. Health 7, 121–130 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40737-020-00164-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40737-020-00164-x

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