efficacy of psycho-educational group program on medication adherence and global functioning of patients with bipolar disorder type I

ABSTRACT

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. 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. 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. Psycho-educational program plus pharmacotherapy was effective in improvement medication adherence and global functioning of bipolar patients.