In one aspect, the present invention provides methods (400, 900) and apparatuses (22, 26, 40)for detecting that a wireless communication device (40) in a serving cell (24, 27) is experiencing excessive interference variance (68), detecting a transmission pattern (74) of interfering transmissions (46) giving rise to such variance, and correspondingly adjusting scheduling of the device (40) as a function of the detected transmission pattern (74), to at least partly avoid the interfering transmissions (46). An advantageous feature of such operation is that the determination of excessive interference variance (68) and the determination of the transmission pattern (74) associated with that varying interference can be done by a network node (22, 26), e.g., the device's serving base station (22, 26), or by the device (40), without requiring backhaul signaling or other inter-node cooperation in the network (20).