A Brief Family-centered Care Program for Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar Disorder
About this trial
This is an interventional treatment trial for Bipolar Disorder
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria:
- Patients were enrolled if they met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV) (American Psychiatric Association 1994) criteria for BP-I or BP-II disorder, were able to be interviewed, and had a Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) score < 17 and a Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) score < 38 (Keck 2004) to prevent adverse effects caused by patients' mood instability.
- Family caregivers who were identified as: (i) significant in the patient's life, (ii) at least 18 years old, (iii) having lived with the patient for at least 6 months, (iv) able to speak and understand Chinese or Taiwanese, and (v) able to answer questionnaires written in Chinese were included.
Exclusion Criteria:
- Patients who had lived alone or lived with their family for less than 6 months, had been concurrently diagnosed with intellectual disability (DSM-5) (American Psychiatric Association 2013), had been newly diagnosed with BPD at this admission, or could not speak Chinese were excluded.
- Caregivers diagnosed with a serious mental illness or intellectual disabilities were excluded.
Sites / Locations
- Taipei Veterans General Hospital
Arms of the Study
Arm 1
Arm 2
Experimental
No Intervention
Brief family-centered care program
treatment-as-usual (TAU)
The Brief family-centered care (BFCC) program was developed and provided for hospitalized patients with BPD and their family caregivers.The BFCC protocol is outlined as 4 treatment sessions, specific goals, and example questions. Four 90-minute in-depth sessions for each dyad were initially held in a quiet interview room to assess family function, then to provide information about BPD, to support and empower the dyads to change communication styles and resolve conflicts, and to sustain or improve family function in the cognitive, affective, and behavioral domains.
All patients were given the standard hospital-provided services: psychiatric nursing care, occupational therapy, and pharmacotherapy. All of the family caregivers were only to attend a routine 60-minute family discussion group about violence and suicide prevention without any specific patient-family dyad interview.