The effect of cognitive behavioral group therapy on bipolar disorder type I

Bipolar disorder is a common psychological disorder which affects the patient's life due to early onset, frequent episodes, long term treatment and losing social relationships. The present research aims at evaluating the rate of effectiveness of group cognitive-behavioral treatment on higher adherence to pharmacotherapy and improvement of interpersonal-relationship in patients suffering from bipolar disorder.
Materials and Methods:The research subjects included 30 females suffering from bipolar disorder, hospitalized in Ibn-e-Sina psychiatry hospital, Mashhad. The participants were selected by their availability and were randomly distributed in experimental and control groups.After the primary dropping out, each group consisted of 11 members took medicine. California test (category B) and nursing form made the pretest of the study, given to the subjects in equal conditions. The experimental group received group cognitive-behavioral therapy in 8 sessions as well as their medication therapy. The control group only received medicine. At the end of the experiment and 6 months later, all subjects were tested under equal circumstances. The findings of the study were analyzed through multi-variable variance analysis and t- test.
Results: The cognitive-behavioral therapy group has been efficiently significant in increment of medication compliance (P<0.01) and improvement of interpersonal relationship (good impression, communality, tolerance, self-control, responsibility (P<0.01) and socialization (P=0.04) in comparing with the control group.
Conclusion: Cognitive behavioral therapy group can be efficient in increment of medication compliance and improvement of personal relationships; therefore, cognitive-behavioral therapy group can be used as a complementary treatment by the clinicians.