Bipolar therapy-How effective is it as bipolar disorder treatment?

Bipolar disorder therapy and psychotherapy are being employed more and more as a means to treat bipolar illness in conjunction with medication. Bipolar disease is a complex medical illness of the brain that affects 5.7 million Americans. But the extent to which psychotherapy is effective has been unclear.

Researchers have demonstrated ,for the first time, in separate short-term trials that a single bipolar drug therapy may be effective in treating both the depressive and manic phases of bipolar disorder. Bipolar I and Bipolar II affect approximately 8 million Americans. They have relied on a combination of drugs to manage their symptoms and because of the difficulty in treating such a disorder, the high risk of committing suicide has increased .

An effective bipolar disorder therapy consists of a treatment program that stresses maintaining a regular schedule of daily activities and stability in personal relationships. During the treatment, bipolar therapists help patients understand how changes in daily routines and the quality of their social relationships and their social roles, such as a spouse,parent, or caregiver, for example, can affect their moods. After identifying situations that can trigger depression or mania therapists teach the bipolar disorder patients how to better manage stressful events and better maintain positive relationships.

Patients taking bipolar medications to treat such a disease are more likely to get well faster and stay well if they receive intensive psychotherapy as psychotherapy is considered a stabilizing force in the life of a patient.

It has been found that 64 percent patients in the intensive psychotherapy groups had become well, compared with 52 percent of those in collaborative care therapy. Those in intensive psychotherapy also became well an average of 110 days faster than patients in collaborative care. In addition, it has also been found that patients who received intensive psychotherapy were one and a half times more likely to be clinically well during any month than those who received collaborative care.

Different types of bipolar disorder therapy available

--Family-focused therapy require the participation and input of the family members of the patients and focused on enhancing family communication and problem-solving. --Cognitive behavioral therapy are more focused on helping the patient understand distortions in thinking and activity, and learn new ways of coping with the bipolar disease Patients will also learn how to cope with bipolar depression by developing such behaviors and thoughts that may help offset the negative mood. They will be able to recognize manic episodes learn how to change behaviors during an episode.