The Efficacy of Psycho-Educational Group Program on Medication Adherence and Global Functioning of Patients with Bipolar Disorder Type I

Document Type : Original article

Authors

1 Department of Clinical Psychology, Tehran Institue of Psychiatry, Iran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran

2 Mental Health Research Center, Department of Clinical Psychology, Tehran Institue of Psychiatry ,Iran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran

3 Research Center for Psychiatry and Behaviour Science, Department of Psychiatry, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

Abstract

Background: Psycho-education is now considered as part of the integrated treatment for bipolar disorder. This study aimed to determine the efficacy of group psycho-education on medication adherence and global functioning of patients with bipolar disorder type I.Methods: 45 patients with bipolar disorder type I were allocated one of the three groups of psycho-education plus pharmacotherapy, pharmacotherapy and placebo plus pharmacotherapy. A psycho-educational program was conducted for the psycho-educational group during 9 weekly sessions. Medication adherence and global functioning of all the three groups were evaluated before the intervention, three months and six months after the intervention using Medication Adherence Rating Scale (MARS) and Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF). ANOVA was performed to examine the data.Results: In the first and second assessments, the mean score of medication adherence and gobal functioning for patients in the psycho-educational group was significantly higher than that in the control and placebo groups (P=0.001). Medication adherence score of the psycho-educational group was increased from 6.27(0.88) to 7.92(1.38). while the mean score of the psycho-educational group increased from 56.6 (3.58) to 64.17 (2.12):, the global functioning reduced from 56.27(3.17) to 54.17(5.08) in the control group and from 56.67 (3.58) to 56 (4.36) in the placebo group.Conclusion: Psycho-educational program plus pharmacotherapy was effective in improvement medication adherence and global functioning of bipolar patients.

Keywords

International Journal of Community Based Nursing & Midwifery
Volume 2, Issue 1 - Serial Number 5
January 2014
Pages 12-19

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