The impact of a simple individual psycho-education program on quality of life, rate of relapse and medication adherence in bipolar disorder patients

IntroductionBipolar disorder is one of ten most debilitating diseases in the world, leading to a lessened quality of life amongst its sufferers. This randomised control trial demonstrates the effectiveness of psycho-education intervention along with a patient support system in the management of this disorder.MethodologyIn this trial, 108 patients, divided equally into two groups, were randomly assigned to receive either pharmacotherapy alone (control group) or psycho-education along with pharmacotherapy treatment (intervention group) for a two year period. Each individual patient in the “intervention” group received eight, fifty-minute sessions of psychological education, followed by monthly telephone follow-up care and psychological support in the subsequent 18 months. Each group was evaluated, once every 6 months for a period of 18 months, in the areas of “quality of life”, “symptoms of relapse”, “pharmacotherapy compliance” and “number of hospital admission for recurrence of bipolar disorder”.ResultThe result of this study indicates that patients in the “intervention” group had a statistically significant enhancement in medication compliance (P = 0.008). Regarding every aspect of life quality, this group was at a better position than the “control” group (P = 0.000). As to relapse and hospital admission, the “intervention” group reported much lower cases compared with the “control” group at a significance level of P = 0.000.Conclusion and discussionThis research has demonstrated that in the psycho-education intervention group, there was a more significant improvement in all areas of quality of life, number of relapses, and hospitalization due to recurrence of bipolar disorder and medication compliance than it was evident in the control groups.

► This randomized clinical trial study evaluated effectiveness of individual psycho-education intervention in management of bipolar mood disorder.
► All patients were in euthymic phase.
► Results were evaluated in areas of the relapses, hospitalization, medication adherence and quality of life.
► Decrease of relapses and hospitalization in the intervention group was observed.
► Intervention group reported a higher level in all domains of quality of life and improvement of medication compliance.