Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Part 1 Clinical, diagnostic, and therapeutic aspects of bipolar disorders
- Part 2 Concept and methodology of psychoeducation
- Part 3 Psychoeducation program: sessions and contents
- Unit 1 Awareness of the disorder
- Session 1 Presentation and rules of the group
- Session 2 What is bipolar disorder?
- Session 3 Etiological and triggering factors
- Session 4 Symptoms I:Mania and hypomania
- Session 5 Symptoms II: Depression and mixed episodes
- Session 6 Evolution and prognosis
- Unit 2 Drug adherence
- Session 7 Treatment I: Mood stabilizers
- Session 8 Treatment II: Antimanic drugs
- Session 9 Treatment III: Antidepressants
- Session 10 Plasma levels of mood stabilizers
- Session 11 Pregnancy and genetic counseling
- Session 12 Psycho-pharmacology vs. alternative therapies
- Session 13 Risks associated with treatment withdrawal
- Unit 3 Avoiding substance abuse
- Session 14 Psychoactive substances: risks in bipolar disorders
- Unit 4 Early detection of new episodes
- Session 15 Early detection of mania and hypomanic episodes
- Session 16 Early detection of depressive and mixed episodes
- Session 17 What to do when a new phase is detected?
- Unit 5 Regular habits and stress management
- Session 18 Regularity of habits
- Session 19 Stress-control techniques
- Session 20 Problem-solving strategies
- Session 21 Closure
- Final note: Is psychoeducation efficacious?
- Bibliography
- Index
Unit 4 - Early detection of new episodes
from Part 3 - Psychoeducation program: sessions and contents
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Part 1 Clinical, diagnostic, and therapeutic aspects of bipolar disorders
- Part 2 Concept and methodology of psychoeducation
- Part 3 Psychoeducation program: sessions and contents
- Unit 1 Awareness of the disorder
- Session 1 Presentation and rules of the group
- Session 2 What is bipolar disorder?
- Session 3 Etiological and triggering factors
- Session 4 Symptoms I:Mania and hypomania
- Session 5 Symptoms II: Depression and mixed episodes
- Session 6 Evolution and prognosis
- Unit 2 Drug adherence
- Session 7 Treatment I: Mood stabilizers
- Session 8 Treatment II: Antimanic drugs
- Session 9 Treatment III: Antidepressants
- Session 10 Plasma levels of mood stabilizers
- Session 11 Pregnancy and genetic counseling
- Session 12 Psycho-pharmacology vs. alternative therapies
- Session 13 Risks associated with treatment withdrawal
- Unit 3 Avoiding substance abuse
- Session 14 Psychoactive substances: risks in bipolar disorders
- Unit 4 Early detection of new episodes
- Session 15 Early detection of mania and hypomanic episodes
- Session 16 Early detection of depressive and mixed episodes
- Session 17 What to do when a new phase is detected?
- Unit 5 Regular habits and stress management
- Session 18 Regularity of habits
- Session 19 Stress-control techniques
- Session 20 Problem-solving strategies
- Session 21 Closure
- Final note: Is psychoeducation efficacious?
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Unit 4 is devoted to teaching patients how to identify a relapse, take prompt action from the behavioral standpoint, and work out an emergency drug treatment plan. Early detection of relapses is a technique that has already been discussed, especially in individual format, and many of our patients benefit from its being built into a group psychoeducation program.
Perhaps the best study on individual psychological intervention in bipolar disorders is the one by Perry et al. (1999); the type of intervention was a variable number of sessions, between 7 and 12, in which the therapist used a distinctly psychoeducative approach in helping patients to identify their most habitual relapse signals. The results indicate that the patients in the treatment group (N = 34) took longer to experience a manic relapse and, at the end of the follow-up period, had a smaller number of manic relapses than the control group (N = 35). It seems that there was no prevention effect for depressive episodes.
In our program we place special emphasis on early detection of hypomanic and manic symptoms for various reasons, most important of which are:
The speed with which hypomania warning signs (“prodromes”) become a full-blown episode is far greater than in the case of depression. While in depression several weeks usually elapse between the first warning signs and the actual episode, in the case of hypomania and manic this can happen in a matter of days or hours.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Psychoeducation Manual for Bipolar Disorder , pp. 156 - 162Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006