This review shows a beneficial effect of EWS in time to recurrence , percentage of people hospitalised and functioning in people with bipolar disorder .
BACKGROUND Recurrence rates for bipolar disorder are high despite effective treatments with mood stabiliser drugs .
Self-help treatments and psychological treatments that teach patients to recognise and manage early warning symptoms and signs ( EWS ) of impending manic or depressive episodes are popular with patients .
The main aim of such interventions is to intervene early and prevent bipolar episodes , thereby increasing the time to the next recurrence and preventing hospitalisation .
OBJECTIVES To compare the effectiveness of an EWS intervention plus treatment as usual ( TAU ) versus TAU ( involving and not involving a psychological therapy ) on time to manic , depressive and all bipolar episodes ( the primary outcome ) , hospitalisation , functioning , depressive and manic symptoms .
Bipolar II illness: course and outcome over a five-year period.
A five year semi-annual follow-up of patients with non-bipolar ( N = 442 ) , bipolar II ( N = 64 ) and bipolar I ( N = 53 ) major depression tracked the courses of prospect ively observed major depressive , hypomanic and manic syndromes . In all three groups , depression was much more likely in any given week than was hypomania or mania . However , during the majority of weeks , no full syndrome was present and none of the groups exhibited evidence of continuing psychosocial deterioration . Though all three groups exhibited similar times to recovery from index and subsequent major depressive episodes , both bipolar groups had substantially higher relapse rates and developed more episodes of major depression , hypomania and mania . The two bipolar groups , in turn , differed by the severity of manic-like syndromes and thus remained diagnostically stable ; the bipolar II patients were much less likely to develop full manic syndromes or to be hospitalized during follow-up . In conjunction with family study data showing that bipolar II disorder breeds true , these data support the separation of bipolar I and bipolar II affective disorder
This review shows a beneficial effect of EWS in time to recurrence , percentage of people hospitalised and functioning in people with bipolar disorder .
BACKGROUND Recurrence rates for bipolar disorder are high despite effective treatments with mood stabiliser drugs .
Self-help treatments and psychological treatments that teach patients to recognise and manage early warning symptoms and signs ( EWS ) of impending manic or depressive episodes are popular with patients .
The main aim of such interventions is to intervene early and prevent bipolar episodes , thereby increasing the time to the next recurrence and preventing hospitalisation .
OBJECTIVES To compare the effectiveness of an EWS intervention plus treatment as usual ( TAU ) versus TAU ( involving and not involving a psychological therapy ) on time to manic , depressive and all bipolar episodes ( the primary outcome ) , hospitalisation , functioning , depressive and manic symptoms .