BETTER OUTLOOK FOR SCHIZOPHRENICS LIVING IN EXTENDED FAMILIES

Cases of schizophrenia and schizophreniform attacks living in extended families have been compared to cases with similar diagnoses in nuclear families. Both diagnostic groups living in extended families presented earlier; they had lower rates of withdrawal symptoms and higher rates of behavioural disturbances and subjective suffering. Inter-generational conflict was a significantly more common precipitating factor in patients living in extended families; this was therapeutically utilized to induce family support. Patients from extended families had a lower tendency to deteriorate into withdrawn, affectively blunted residual states.