Medizinische Universität Graz Austria/Österreich - Forschungsportal - Medical University of Graz
Gewählte Publikation:
Skavantzos, A.
Review about adjuvant group-interventions for patients with bipolar disorder
Humanmedizin; [ Diplomarbeit ] Graz Medical University; 2016. pp. 92
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- Autor*innen der Med Uni Graz:
- Betreuer*innen:
- Macheiner Tanja
- Reininghaus Eva
- Altmetrics:
- Abstract:
- Bipolar affective disorder is a severe mental disease characterized by periods of elevated mood and depression. The most frequent therapy for bipolar disorder is a life-long medication with psychotropic drugs combined with psychotherapy. Several studies showed that adjuvant psychosocial interventions for patients can lead to better outcomes. This thesis aims to review the efficacy of different adjuvant group-interventions, manuals or therapies for patients with bipolar disorder. A literature search about studies of adjuvant psychosocial interventions for patients with bipolar disorder reported from 2003 to 2013 was conducted. I searched in medical databases including Pubmed, Medline and Embase as well as Google Scholar. Keywords for the review are “bipolar disorder”, “psychotherapy” or “psychoeducation”, “adjuvant group-intervention” and “efficacy” or “effectiveness”. At the end, a meta-analysis of trials investigating the effectiveness of interventions to reduce relapse rates of patients was conducted. A total of 34 trials from 12 different countries were selected for the review. The main types of interventions most commonly tested on their efficacy are Psychoeducation (PE), Cognitive-behavioural Therapy (CBT), Family-Focused Therapy (FFT), and Interpersonal-Social-Rhythm-Therapy (IPSRT). 9 studies of PE, 8 studies of CBT, 5 studies of FFT, 4 studies of IPSRT, 2 studies of Systematic Care Management (SCM) and additionally 5 studies from other types of psychosocial approaches including Mindfulness-Based-Cognitive-Therapy (MBCT), Dialectical-Behavioural-Therapy (DBT) and Functional Remediation were reviewed. Most trials focus on outcome parameters like relapse rates, time spent in episodes, rates of rehospitalization, severity of symptoms and global functioning. There are several studies indicating beneficial effects of adjunctive psychosocial interventions for patients with BD. The efficacy of some particular interventions could have been maintained even after five years and other studies showed that additional booster-sessions post-treatment could also prolong their efficacy. The meta-analysis of the prevention of relapses proved the effectiveness of different interventions. However, there are some discrepancies between outcomes due to diverse characteristics of the participants and heterogeneity of control groups or duration of treatments and follow-up periods and different testing tools. Further effort to improve the comparability of studies should be considered in the future.