New results from the largest federally funded bipolar study ever conducted show that patients who receive psychotherapy in addition to medication get better faster from bipolar disorder's debilitating depression and stay better longer, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder researcher involved in the study.
Part of a $26.8 million effort, the study found that adding intensive psychotherapy to a bipolar patient's medication treatment made them one and a half times more likely to be clinically well during any month of the study year, compared with a group that didn't receive intensive therapy, according to CU-Boulder psychology Professor David Miklowitz, the principal author of the study.
"The take home message here is that psychotherapy is a vital part of the effort to stabilize episodes of depression in people suffering from bipolar disorder," Miklowitz said. "If you get regular intensive therapy, the outcome for depression is going to be better than if you just take medications and have a couple of case management sessions."
The results of the study were published today in the April edition of the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.
Medication is the first line of defense against the disease, also called manic depression. Bipolar disorder is inherited and caused by a biochemical imbalance in the brain. It affects an estimated 5.7 million Americans, many of whom develop the disorder in their teens or as young adults.
While psychotherapy is routinely used to treat bipolar disorder, its effectiveness up until now has been unclear, according to Miklowitz. The seven-year study involved 293 people suffering from bipolar depression who were already taking medication. The participants, who were treated in 15 sites across the country, were randomly assigned to one of three types of standardized, intensive, nine-month psychotherapies, or to a control group that received a brief psychotherapy program that involved three sessions of education about the disorder.
The three types of intensive therapies included a family-focused therapy that involves participants' family members and focuses on family coping, communication and problem-solving; cognitive behavioral therapy that focuses on helping the patient understand and cope with distortions in thinking and activity; and interpersonal and social rhythm therapy that focuses on stabilizing daily and nightly routines and solving key relationship problems.