Expressed Emotion — MRCPsych Paper B MCQ
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Correct answer: C — Expressed emotion
The correct answer is **A, expressed emotion**. High expressed emotion describes a family climate characterised principally by criticism, hostility and emotional over-involvement. In psychosis and schizophrenia, it is associated with an increased risk of relapse, although it is a relational risk marker rather than a diagnosis or evidence that relatives caused the illness. Family intervention is a treatment that may address stressful family interactions, not the name of the pattern. Enmeshment refers to excessively diffuse interpersonal boundaries and captures only part of the described presentation. Triangulation involves conflict between two people being managed through a third person, which is not described here. “Systemic dysfunction” is a broad, non-specific formulation rather than the established construct defined by these three features.
Reference: Ma CF et al. The predictive power of expressed emotion and its components in relapse of schizophrenia: a meta-analysis and meta-regression. Psychological Medicine. 2021;51(3):365–375. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33568244/