Does adjunctive family therapy enhance recovery from bipolar I mood episodes?
BACKGROUND
Family therapy is sometimes used as adjunctive treatment to pharmacotherapy to help patients recover from mood episodes of bipolar I disorder. However, the efficacy of this practice is not known.


METHODS
Ninety-two patients meeting criteria for a current bipolar I mood episode were randomly assigned to family therapy plus pharmacotherapy, multifamily psychoeducational group therapy plus pharmacotherapy, or pharmacotherapy alone. Time to recovery was analyzed with survival analysis.


RESULTS
The proportion of subjects within each treatment group who recovered did not significantly differ, nor did time to recovery.


CONCLUSIONS
The analyses did not include other outcomes such as psychosocial functioning, prophylaxis against recurrences of mood episodes, or compliance with pharmacotherapy.


CONCLUSIONS
Neither adjunctive family therapy nor adjunctive multifamily psychoeducational group therapy significantly improves the rate of recovery from mood episodes of bipolar I disorder, compared to treatment with pharmacotherapy alone.
Miller
Ivan W
IW
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
Solomon
David A
DA
Ryan
Christine E
CE
Keitner
Gabor I
GI
D000328:Adult; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000628:therapy*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D004358:Drug Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005196:Family Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male