MAPS Group Therapy Model for Bipolar Disorder
Condition: Bipolar Disorder; Suicide
MeSH terms: Bipolar Disorder; Suicide
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      This study aims to develop the MAPS(M,Monitoring;A,Assessing;P,Preventing or Reducing
      Relapse;S,Smart goal setting) group therapy model for bipolar disorder patients as other
      adjuvant clinical treatment and develop the instruments for evaluating the severity of
      bipolar symptoms. The investigators insist to provide the psychosocial intervention for
      bipolar patients in the general hospital and offer appropriative adjuvant intervention except
      current psychiatric biological treatment.

      This study is a one-year project. First, the investigators like to translate the Depression,
      Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) and the Altman Self-Rating Scale for Mania (ASRM) to Chinese
      and finish the reliability and validity study. Second, the investigators would like to
      develop the MAPS group therapy to enhance bipolar patients' insight, increased life quality
      and decrease suicidal ideation. This study is a case control study. All cases recruit from
      the psychiatric outpatient department of one medical center. The inclusion criteria are
      diagnosed as bipolar disorder, age from 18 to 65 and agree to sign the inform consent. The
      excluded criteria are hard to communicate, with acute psychiatric feature and severe physical
      illness. The investigators plan to hold the MAPS group three times and predetermine to
      recruit totally 30 patients as the case group. As to the control group, the investigators
      also recruit from the psychiatric outpatient department and those who treat as usual by
      control their gender, age and the same diagnosis as bipolar disorder. The only one different
      factor between the case group and the control group was attending the MAPS group therapy or
      not. In MAPS group therapy, two facilitators work with ten clients with twelve weekly
      sessions and three monthly booster sessions. Self-report rating scales (DASS and ASRM) are
      completed at the beginning of each session. The investigators use DASS and ASRM to evaluate
      the severity of bipolar symptoms; BSS for suicidal ideation; SF-36 for life quality. The
      hypothesis is "patients attended to MAPS group therapy have better symptoms control, lower
      suicidal ideation, better life quality and less use emergency department or admissions than
      those who didn't attend the group therapy".
    


Intervention name(s): psychoeducation group therapy
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): This program consists of 15 sessions of closed group, with each session lasting 120 minutes, each aims at improving four main issues: illness awareness, early detection of prodromal symptoms and recurrences, treatment adherence, and lifestyle regularity. The program will be in groups of 6-12, conducted by two experienced therapists. The structure of each session consists of 30-40 minutes talk on the topic of the day, followed by an exercise related to the issue and a discussion.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: Bipolar disorder; psychosocial intervention; group therapy; relapse prevention; parasuicide; Recurrence; hospitalization; Medication adherence; Self-Injurious Behavior; Quality of Life