Browsing by Author "Hirvonen, Anna-Maria"

Aims. Previous research on cognitive-behavioral therapy for bipolar disorder is somewhat contradictory. It is also known that the course of bipolar disorder is heterogeneous both within and between patients. This study examined if there is change in global distress measure and which of the four domains (life functioning, problems/symptoms, subjective wellbeing or risk to self and to others) explain the change. Furthermore, it was examined whether there was variance in global distress between patients before treatment and if the change in global distress was different based on the score in beginning. Methods. This study focused on patients (N = 85) who participated in cognitive-behavioral group therapy for bipolar disorder in psychiatric outpatient care in Helsinki between 2013 and 2015. Global distress (Core-OM) was measured before and after treatment. The change in scores was examined using repeated measures MANOVA. Univariate analysis of variance was used as post-hoc method for examining which domains (life functioning, problems/symptoms, subjective wellbeing or risk to self and to others) explained the change. Results and conclusions. Global distress decreased during cognitive-behavioral group therapy. The change in global distress was explained by domains life functioning and problems/symptoms but not by subjective wellbeing or risk to self and to others. There was variance in global distress between patients before treatment and the change during treatment was different for these groups. More research is needed to examine whether e.g. the type of bipolar disorder, the number of previous episodes, psychiatric comorbidity or cognitive deficits affect the efficacy of adjunctive psychosocial interventions for different subgroups of bipolar disorder so targeted interventions for those groups can be developed.