Effectiveness of Family-Focused Therapy in Bipolar Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Background: Family-focused therapy (FFT) has been developed to address the significant impairments in psychosocial functioning among individuals with bipolar disorder (BD). Objectives: This study investigated the effectiveness of FFT combined with drug therapy in patient support in managing this disorder. Methods: In this randomized controlled trial, 50 patients and their caregivers were randomly divided into 2 groups: A drug therapy group that only received medication and a family therapy group that received 15 one-hour sessions of FFT with their caregivers in addition to medication. The Expressed Emotion Questionnaire (EEQ), a modified version of the standard internal label questionnaire for the mentally ill, and the World Health Organization Quality of Life–Brief (WHOQOL-BREF) were used in the present study. Data were analyzed using the t-test. Results: Expressed emotion (EE) significantly decreased in the family therapy group (P = 0.001). Also, mental health and social health were better in the family therapy group than in the drug therapy group (P = 0.001). Nevertheless, no significant change was observed in the dimensions of physical and environmental health in both groups. The results of the study were relatively stable in all measurements in follow-up, except for the stigma. Conclusions: Significant improvements were observed in EE and quality of life (QOL) in the family therapy group. This difference was not statistically significant in the stigma score despite the difference in the means of the 2 groups.