Expressed emotion, family environment, and parental bonding in bulimia nervosa: A 6-year investigation

As part of a prospective, long-term treatment study, 30 in-patients with bulimia nervosa (BN) were divided into groups with high and low expressed emotion (EE) family backgrounds according to the Camberwell Family Interview, and followed for a period of six years. The high EE group initially showed significantly more psychopathology than the low EE group. No group x time interactions were found, but the high EE group showed a worse outcome on the “conflict” and “organisation” subscales of the Family Environment Scale. They also showed significantly more eating disorder pathology according to the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI) and the Structured Interview for anorexia nervosa (AN) and BN before treatment, at discharge, after two years and, to some degree, even after six years. Depth of depression (Beck Depression Inventory) was significantly higher in the high EE group at admission (moderate depression), discharge and after the 6-year follow-up (still slight depression). The Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) showed no differences between the high EE and low EE groups, but the individuals with “affectionless control” according to the PBI had more negative scores on three of the subscales of the Family Environment Scale (FES). In brief, the high EE individuals with BN were initially sicker and did not fully catch up over time in comparison with the symptomatic recovery of the low EE individuals. These data suggest that EE status upon admission to in-patient treatment is a relevant predictor of the severity and course of BN and depressive symptoms.