In a waiting-list controlled study on a multi-family psycho-educational intervention in bipolar disorder, key relatives in the treatment group showed a significant change from high to low levels of expressed emotion (EE) compared with the control group. In addition, patients with low-EE key relatives had a significantly lower number of hospital admissions compared with those living with high-EE key relatives. The multi-family groups were well received by the participants, and there were only a few drop-outs.