Family-Focused Treatment Versus Individual Treatment for Bipolar Disorder Results of a Randomized Clinical Trial

• Published in: Journal of consulting and clinical psychology Vol. 71; no. 3; pp. 482 - 492
• Main Authors: Rea, Margaret M, Tompson, Martha C, Miklowitz, David J, Goldstein, Michael J, Hwang, Sun, Mintz, Jim
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychological Association 01-06-2003
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Bipolar affective disorder; Bipolar Disorder; Bipolar Disorder - rehabilitation; Bipolar Disorder - therapy; Clinical outcomes; Clinical psychology; Clinical trials; Comparative studies; Drug Therapy; Family; Family - psychology; Family centred care; Family counseling; Family Therapy; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Followup studies; Hospitalization; Hospitalized Patients; Human; Humans; Individual programme plans; Individual Psychotherapy; Inpatient; Male; Mania; Medical sciences; Medical treatment; Mental health; Mental illness; Middle Aged; Miscellaneous; Outcomes; Psychiatric Hospital Readmission; Psychoeducation; Psychoeducational group therapy; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychotherapy; Psychotherapy - methods; Randomized controlled trials; Relapse (Disorders); Therapy; Treatment; Treatment Compliance; Treatments; Mood disorder; Human; Treatment efficiency; Bipolar disorder; Individual psychotherapy; Chemotherapy; Randomized design; Follow up study; Family psychotherapy; Clinical trial; Treatment compliance; Combined treatment; Comparative study
• ISSN: 0022-006X; 1939-2117
• DOI: 10.1037/0022-006X.71.3.482

Recently hospitalized bipolar, manic patients (
N
= 53) were randomly assigned to a 9-month, manual-based, family-focused psychoeducational therapy (
n
= 28) or to an individually focused patient treatment (
n
= 25). All patients received concurrent treatment with mood-stabilizing medications. Structured follow-up assessments were conducted at 3-month intervals for a 1-year period of active treatment and a 1-year period of posttreatment follow-up. Compared with patients in individual therapy, those in family-focused treatment were less likely to be rehospitalized during the 2-year study period. Patients in family treatment also experienced fewer mood disorder relapses over the 2 years, although they did not differ from patients in individual treatment in their likelihood of a first relapse. Results suggest that family psychoeducational treatment is a useful adjunct to pharmacotherapy in decreasing the risk of relapse and hospitalization frequently associated with bipolar disorder.