and Expressed Emotion in Families of Persons With Mental Disorders

with bipolar disorders or schizo-phrenia was analyzed as a stochastic process to examine communication patterns between patients and par-ents relative to parents ' level of ex-pressed emotion (EE). Interaction sequences were coded with the Relational Control Coding System, and Markov process characteristics of order (degree of sequential de-pendency), stationarity, and role homogeneity were assessed with log-linear analysis. Communication patterns in high-EE families with both disorders showed more serial dependence—were more "tightly joined"—than low-EE families. However, both low- and high-EE families of persons with bipolar dis-orders competed for control, while there were marked differences in control patterns in low- and high-EE families of persons with schizophre-nia, with low-EE families not at all competitive and high-EE families highly competitive. Differences in both responsiveness and competi-tion for control were much stronger in dual-parent families. It was con-cluded that high-EE families have a family system that combines over-responsiveness with conflict about "who's in charge.&quot