Effects of an integrative approach to bipolar disorders combining psychoeducation, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and functional remediation: Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Introduction

Bipolar disorder is related to a high level of personal, familial, social and economic burden. There is a need for feasible adjunctive psychological interventions easy to implement in clinical practice in order to enhance aspects that medication alone cannot achieve. This study aims to evaluate the impact of a 12-session adjunctive integrative program designed for patients with bipolar disorder.

Methods

This is a single-blind prospective, randomized controlled trial involving a total of 132 outpatients with bipolar disorder who will be recruited from the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona. All participants will be randomly assigned to two arms. All the patients will receive treatment as usual (TAU) but in addition the experimental group will receive an integrative approach consisting of 12-sessions of 90 min each in which contents of psychoeducation for patients have been combined with a session for family members, and complemented with aspects related to health promotion, mindfulness training, and strategies for cognitive and functional enhancement. The whole sample will be assessed at baseline, after completion (3-months) and at 12 months from baseline regarding demographic and clinical variables, psychosocial and cognitive functioning, wellbeing and quality of life. The primary outcome measure will be improvement in psychosocial functioning.

Conclusions

If the integrative approach is effective, it would allow clinicians to cover different areas that may be affected by bipolar disorder, by means of a brief intervention that can therefore be easily generalized to clinical practice.

Trial registration

NCT04031560. Date registered July 24, 2019.