The investigation of the effectiveness of mobile-based psychoeducation in patients with bipolar disorder: A randomized controlled trial (rct)

Abstract

Background: Bipolar disorder is a chronic and debilitating psychiatric condition. Mobile-based psychoeducation is a very impor-tant tool for the treatment of this disorder. Objectives: The study aimed to provide scientific evidence regarding the effectiveness of these tools for patients with bipolar dis-order. Methods: In a randomized control trial (RCT) with a sample size of 41, the participants were randomly assigned to one of the intervention or the control arms based on the random number table. The study was performed in a psychiatric teaching hospital in Mashhad, Iran. The primary targets of the study was to measure the depression, manic, and anxiety symptoms that were measured at baseline and 3 months follow-up for the intervention and the control group. A mobile application was developed and provided to the intervention group after discharge from the case hospital. The control group did not receive the application and received rou-tine health care services during the study. A baseline comparison was performed between the groups, comparisons of the primary outcomes between the groups and within each group were carried out. Results: The results showed that the score of anxiety, depression, and mania at baseline and after the follow-up did not have a significant decrease within the groups. In addition, a slight reduction in the depression and anxiety scores within the groups was found. The mean of anxiety (P-value: 0.035), depression (P-value: 0.024), and mania (P-value: 0.007) after 3 month follow-up had a significant decrease between the groups. A baseline comparison was performed between the groups, and comparisons of the primary outcomes between the groups and within each group were carried out. Conclusions: Given the low effectiveness of using mobile-based psychoeducation on anxiety, depression, and mania in bipolar patients. It is recommended to use mobile applications as a complementary treatment along with other types of treatment for bipolar patients in future studies to obtain more evidence about the effectiveness of mobile-based psychoeducation.