Psychotherapeutic interventions in bipolar disorder:: A review

The treatment of bipolar disorders is a demanding task involving patients, therapists and relatives. As bipolar disorders are associated to multiple psychosocial disturbances, the management of a bipolar disease should focus on psychosocial interventions. Despite an exploding literature on this topic, psychopharmacological interventions applied as a monotherapy have shown unsatisfactory outcomes. In order to enhance outcome, psychotherapy, such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), psychoeducation, a modified form of interpersonal psychotherapy (IPSRT) or family focussed psychotherapy (FFT) were investigated. When used in conjunction with pharmacotherapy, these interventions may prolong time to relapse, reduce symptom severity, and increase medication adherence. These combinations are currently considered being the golden standard in the treatment of bipolar disorders. Psychotherapeutic interventions as an add-on strategy exert better effects when patients are euthymic at entry. Prevention of manic episodes seems to be more successful as compared to the prevention of depressive episodes. There are currently no hints for a method specific efficacy. Efficacy of psychoeducation seems to be rather short lived. Currently not yet evaluated booster-sessions might help. More data are needed in order to identify patients with a putative good response to psychotherapeutic interventions. This article discusses these interventions and summarizes the evidence for their efficacy in randomized trials.