One-year outcomes of depressive disorders in child psychiatric in-patients: evaluation of the prognostic power of a brief measure of expressed emotion.

The association between 1-year post-hospitalization outcome and the brief Five Minute Speech Sample (FMSS) measure of expressed emotion (EE) was examined among children with depressive disorders. Results indicated a strong association between 1-year outcome and the FMSS-EE measure. Whereas children returning to high EE homes were likely to show persistent mood disorder, recovery was more common among children returning to low EE homes. This predictive relationship was independent of possible mediating variables such as treatment regimen and clinical characteristics. Results provide the first reported demonstration that (1) the brief FMSS-EE measure predicts clinical outcome, and (2) EE measures predict 1-year outcome for children with depressive disorders.