Short-Term Family-Focused Psycho-Educational Program for Bipolar Mood Disorder in Mashhad

Background: Bipolar mood disorder type 1 is one of the most serious psychiatric disorders. We aimed to assess the efficacy of a short-term family–focused treatment for patients with bipolar mood disorder type 1 in a one-year follow-up period. Methods: Sixty patients with bipolar mood disorder and acute mania episodes who referred to Ibn-e-Sina Psychiatric Hospital in Mashhad were recruited. Half of them were randomly assigned to the psycho-education group. Their available adult family members received a psycho-educational training session before the patients' discharge from the hospital. All patients received concurrent appropriate pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy. All the patients were evaluated by a blind home-visit team every 3 months for a period of one year. The evaluation included the number of psychiatric visits, patients' adherence, relapse status, number of re-hospitalizations, and time to relapse. Results: Fifty-seven patients completed the trial. In the experimental group, there were four patients with relapse (13.79%) and in the control group nine patients (31.58%) had relapse of the disorder (P=0.006). The mean time of taking medications in the education group was 11.41 months. This time was 9.14 months in the control group (P<0.001). There was also a significant difference between the two groups in terms of frequency of psychiatric visits (P<0.001). Conclusion: Short–term family-focused psycho-education is an effective adjunct to pharmacotherapy for bipolar mood disorder. Further studies are needed to evaluate the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of long-term family-focused psycho-educational treatment for patients with bipolar mood disorder.