Electrodermal Activity, Expressed Emotion and Outcome in Schizophrenia

Abstract

This paper attempts to describe some of our electrodermal data and its relationship with environmental factors and the outcome of a psychosocial intervention study with families of schizophrenics. In the context of the heuristic vulnerability/stress model of the development and course of schizophrenic episodes described by Nuechterlein & Dawson in 1984, there is an interaction between individual vulnerability factors and external environmental stressors with resulting effects on the hypothesised transient intermediate states of: processing capacity overload, autonomic hyperarousal and a deficient processing of social stimuli. Accelerating dysfunctions in these systems result in the reappearance of characteristic schizophrenic psychotic symptoms. The purpose of our work has been to investigate the interface between the individuals' biological and environmental systems.