Psychoeducational family intervention (PFI) improves social functioning in patients with bipolar I disorder and reduces burden among close relatives, Italian study data show.
If the findings are replicated in other studies, “psychoeducation should become an integral part of the therapeutic armamentarium of every mental health professional”, say Andrea Fiorillo (University of Naples SUN) and co-authors of the study.
They assessed the efficacy of the Falloon psychoeducational intervention (1985) adapted to bipolar I disorder as add-on therapy to treatment as usual (TAU) and compared it with TAU alone in 137 clinically stable patients with bipolar I disorder who were recruited from 10 Italian community mental health centres.
The patients and their key relatives (those spending the most time in contact with the patients in the previous year) either attended 12 to 18, 90-minute PFI sessions focusing on individual and family assessment, information on characteristics of the disorder, its treatment, early warning signs, management of suicidal behaviours, communication skills and problem solving skills or were assigned to a waiting list.
At the end of the intervention period, the 70 patients in the PFI group reported significant improvements in social function, assessed using the global score on the Disability Assessment Scale (DAS). The average score fell from 2.9 at baseline to 2.6 following PFI.
[For more of this story, written by Laura Cowen, go to http://www.medwirenews.com/47/...ipolar_disorder.html]
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