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Multicenter Study
. 2022 Sep;24(6):647-657.
doi: 10.1111/bdi.13182. Epub 2022 Feb 9.

Medium and long-term efficacy of psychoeducational family intervention for bipolar I disorder: Results from a real-world, multicentric study

Mario Luciano  1 , Gaia Sampogna  1 , Valeria Del Vecchio  1 , Vincenzo Giallonardo  1 , Arcangelo Di Cerbo  1 , Carmela Palummo  1 , Claudio Malangone  2 , Debora Lampis  3 , Franco Veltro  4 , Francesco Bardicchia  5 , Giusy Ciampini  6 , Emanuele Orlandi  7 , Annamaria Moroni  8 , Silvia Biondi  9 , Massimiliano Piselli  10 , Giulia Menculini  11 , Giuseppe Nicolò  12 , Enrico Pompili  12 , Giuseppe Carrà  13 , Andrea Fiorillo  1
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Medium and long-term efficacy of psychoeducational family intervention for bipolar I disorder: Results from a real-world, multicentric study

Mario Luciano et al. Bipolar Disord. 2022 Sep.

Abstract

Objectives: This study aims to explore the long-term efficacy of a psychoeducational family intervention (PFI) in bipolar I disorder at one and five years post-intervention in terms of improvement of: (1) patients' symptoms and global functioning and (2) relatives' objective and subjective burden and coping strategies.

Methods: This is a multicentre, real-world, controlled, outpatient trial. Recruited patients and key-relatives were consecutively allocated to the experimental intervention or treatment as usual. Patients were assessed at baseline, and after one and five years.

Results: One hundred and thirty-seventh number families have been recruited; 70 have been allocated to the experimental intervention, and 67 have been allocated to the control group. We observed an increasing positive effect of the PFI on patients' clinical status, global functioning and objective and subjective burden after one year. We also found a reduction in the levels of relatives' objective and subjective burden and a significant improvement in the levels of perceived professional support and of coping strategies. The efficacy of PFI on patients' clinical status was maintained at five years from the end of the intervention, in terms of relapses, hospitalizations and suicide attempts.

Conclusions: The study showed that the provision of PFI in real-world settings is associated with a significant improvement of patients' and relatives' mental health and psychosocial functioning in the long term. We found that the clinical efficacy of the intervention, in terms of reduction of patients' relapses, hospitalization and suicide attempts, persists after 5 years. It is advisable that PFI is provided to patients with BD I in routine practice.

Keywords: bipolar I disorder; family; long-term efficacy; psychoeducation; real-world.

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Conflict of interest statement

Authors declare to have no conflict of interests.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Effect of the experimental intervention on patients’ and relatives’ outcome measures at 1 and 5 years. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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