A meta-analysis of adjuvant group-interventions in psychiatric care for patients with bipolar disorders

- The meta-analysis shows that bipolar patients who received adjuvant psychotherapy have a lower risk ratio for relapse.
- All analyzed studies had different study designs and durations as well as testing tools which complicated the comparison.
- There is a need for further research on different intervention methods for bipolar patients.

BackgroundBipolar disorders are ranked amongst the top ten causes of global disability and cause high health care costs. Previous studies have showed that mood stabilizing drug therapy combined with psychological treatments lead to significantly fewer relapses and a reduction in hospitalization rates. However, there is a wide spectrum of psychosocial intervention methods for individuals and groups which have been insufficiently examined on a scientific basis.MethodsStudies published between 2003 and 2015 on different types of adjuvant psychosocial group interventions in the MESH database were reviewed and evaluated for their efficacy on patients with bipolar disorder related to the relapse ratio by a meta-analysis.ResultsThe meta-analysis included 24 intervention groups and showed that 75% of treated groups under medication and psychosocial therapy had a lower risk of a relapse than the control groups which only received medication therapy.LimitationsThe meta-analysis includes a number of trials with participants in different phases of disease course and study designs, the number of studies in each analyzed intervention group was not balanced and many studies focused on recovery and recurrence of episodes, precluding identification of the impact on subsyndromal symptomsConclusionsAdjuvant psychosocial interventions seem to be indispensable for patients, their relations as well as for saving costs in the health care system. Nevertheless, an evaluation of effectiveness and impact factors of different psychosocial intervention methods needs further research.