A New Treatment Program: Focused Integrated Team-based Treatment Program for Bipolar Disorder (FITT-BD).

OBJECTIVE: Bipolar disorder (BD) is complicated by a dynamic, chronic course along with multiple comorbid psychiatric and medical conditions, making it challenging for clinicians to treat and patients to thrive. To efficiently manage the complexity of BD and help patients recover, we developed a Focused Integrated Team-based Treatment Program for Bipolar Disorder (FITT-BD). The purpose of this paper is to describe how we developed this clinic and the lessons we learned. METHODS: We developed FITT-BD by integrating strategies from stepped care, collaborative care, and learning health care systems. We describe the rationale, details, and lessons learned in developing FITT-BD. RESULTS: By integrating stepped care, collaborative care, and a learning health care system approach, FITT-BD aims to reduce barriers to care, leverage the expertise of a multidisciplinary treatment team, ensure patient-centeredness, and use assessments to inform and continuously improve outcomes in real time. We learned that there are challenges in the creation of a web-based application that tracks the treatment of patients within a network of hospitals. CONCLUSIONS: The success of FITT-BD will be determined by the degree to which it can increase treatment access, improve treatment adherence, and help individuals with BD achieve their treatment goals. We expect that FITT-BD will improve outcomes in the context of ongoing clinical care. PUBLIC HEALTH SIGNIFICANCE: The treatment of BD is challenging and complex. We propose a new treatment model for BD: FITT-BD. We expect that this program will be a patient-centered approach that improves outcomes in the context of ongoing clinical care for patients with BD.

Web-Based Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Well-being: Randomized Comparative Effectiveness Trial.

BACKGROUND: Mindfulness can improve overall well-being by training individuals to focus on the present moment without judging their thoughts. However, it is unknown how much mindfulness practice and training are necessary to improve well-being. OBJECTIVE: The primary aim of this study was to determine whether a standard 8-session web-based mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) program, compared with a brief 3-session mindfulness intervention, improved overall participant well-being. In addition, we sought to explore whether the treatment effects differed based on the baseline characteristics of the participants (ie, moderators). METHODS: Participants were recruited from 17 patient-powered research networks, web-based communities of stakeholders interested in a common research area. Participants were randomized to either a standard 8-session MBCT or a brief 3-session mindfulness training intervention accessed on the web. The participants were followed for 12 weeks. The primary outcome of the study was well-being, as measured by the World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index. We hypothesized that MBCT would be superior to a brief mindfulness training. RESULTS: We randomized 4411 participants, 3873 (87.80%) of whom were White and 3547 (80.41%) of female sex assigned at birth. The mean baseline World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index score was 50.3 (SD 20.7). The average self-reported well-being in each group increased over the intervention period (baseline to 8 weeks; model-based slope for the MBCT group: 0.78, 95% CI 0.63-0.93, and brief mindfulness group: 0.76, 95% CI 0.60-0.91) as well as the full study period (ie, intervention plus follow-up; baseline to 20 weeks; model-based slope for MBCT group: 0.41, 95% CI 0.34-0.48; and brief mindfulness group: 0.33, 95% CI 0.26-0.40). Changes in self-reported well-being were not significantly different between MBCT and brief mindfulness during the intervention period (model-based difference in slopes: -0.02, 95% CI -0.24 to 0.19; P=.80) or during the intervention period plus 12-week follow-up (-0.08, 95% CI -0.18 to 0.02; P=.10). During the intervention period, younger participants (P=.05) and participants who completed a higher percentage of intervention sessions (P=.005) experienced greater improvements in well-being across both interventions, with effects that were stronger for participants in the MBCT condition. Attrition was high (ie, 2142/4411, 48.56%), which is an important limitation of this study. CONCLUSIONS: Standard MBCT improved well-being but was not superior to a brief mindfulness intervention. This finding suggests that shorter mindfulness programs could yield important benefits across the general population of individuals with various medical conditions. Younger people and participants who completed more intervention sessions reported greater improvements in well-being, an effect that was more pronounced for participants in the MBCT condition. This finding suggests that standard MBCT may be a better choice for younger people as well as treatment-adherent individuals. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03844321; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03844321.

Anxiety disorders in predominantly African American and Caribbean American adults with intractable epilepsy: The role of perceived epilepsy stigma.

INTRODUCTION: Anxiety disproportionately affects people with epilepsy (PWE) and leads to poor outcomes. Yet, risk factors are not well understood especially among underserved groups. This cross-sectional study aimed to identify epilepsy-specific predictors of anxiety disorders in predominantly African American and Caribbean American PWE. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The prevalence of anxiety disorders was established via diagnostic interview (Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI)). We identified the extent to which aspects of seizure burden (seizure frequency, seizure severity, convulsive vs. nonconvulsive seizures), seizure worry, and perceived epilepsy stigma were associated with anxiety disorder diagnosis. Finally, logistic regression assessed the overall and independent contributions of significant risk factors. RESULTS: There were 60 participants (62% women, 52% African American, 27% Caribbean American, 20% Hispanic/Latino) with an average of 2 seizures per month. Nearly half of the sample (43%) had ≥1 anxiety disorder, with 62% of affected individuals qualifying for agoraphobia. Those with anxiety disorders tended to have convulsive seizures (p = 0.037) and endorsed greater seizure worry (p = 0.012), more general symptoms of anxiety (p = 0.005), and worse perceived epilepsy stigma (p = 0.003). Logistic regression accounted for 28% to 37.6% of the variance in anxiety disorder diagnostic status and correctly classified 73% of cases; however, only perceived epilepsy stigma made a unique contribution. CONCLUSIONS: Anxiety disorders were prevalent in these predominantly African American and Caribbean American PWE. Epilepsy-specific risk factors included convulsive seizures, seizure worry, and perceived epilepsy stigma. Interventions aimed at treating anxiety disorders in diverse PWE may especially benefit from targeting stigma beliefs.