title: The impact of a simple individual psycho-education program on quality of life, rate of relapse and medication adherence in bipolar disorder patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Bipolar disorder is one of ten most debilitating diseases in the world, leading to a lessened quality of life amongst its sufferers. This randomised control trial demonstrates the effectiveness of psycho-education intervention along with a patient support system in the management of this disorder.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this trial, 108 patients, divided equally into two groups, were randomly assigned to receive either pharmacotherapy alone (control group) or psycho-education along with pharmacotherapy treatment (intervention group) for a two year period. Each individual patient in the "intervention" group received eight, fifty-minute sessions of psychological education, followed by monthly telephone follow-up care and psychological support in the subsequent 18 months. Each group was evaluated, once every 6 months for a period of 18 months, in the areas of "quality of life", "symptoms of relapse", "pharmacotherapy compliance" and "number of hospital admission for recurrence of bipolar disorder".
  
  
  RESULTS
  The result of this study indicates that patients in the "intervention" group had a statistically significant enhancement in medication compliance (P = 0.008). Regarding every aspect of life quality, this group was at a better position than the "control" group (P = 0.000). As to relapse and hospital admission, the "intervention" group reported much lower cases compared with the "control" group at a significance level of P = 0.000.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This research has demonstrated that in the psycho-education intervention group, there was a more significant improvement in all areas of quality of life, number of relapses, and hospitalization due to recurrence of bipolar disorder and medication compliance than it was evident in the control groups.
authors: Research Centre for Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors: Ali
authors: A
authors: Javadpour
authors: Arvin
authors: A
authors: Hedayati
authors: Gholam-Reza
authors: GR
authors: Dehbozorgi
authors: Amin
authors: A
authors: Azizi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055118:Medication Adherence; D008875:Middle Aged; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012008:Recurrence; D055815:Young Adult