Family-Focused Psychotherapy Enhances Treatment for Bipolar Disorder
For the past 25 years, clinical psychology Professor David Miklowitz has pioneered a treatment method called family-focused therapy in the battle against bipolar disorder. Medication is the first line of defense against the disease, but Miklowitz has found that involving family members in the treatment process not only helps patients recover faster from debilitating depressive phases, but also keeps them better longer.
Bipolar disorder affects nearly six million Americans who live with wild mood swings between periods of abnormally high energy and debilitating bouts of depression. While fully controlling these ups and downs is not possible, doctors can help quicken recovery from episodes and delay patients’ relapses. Miklowitz has found that teaching patients and family members how to immediately recognize and get treatment for emerging symptoms is essential to controlling the disease.
His family-focused treatment revolves around therapy sessions to educate members of the immediate family about the disease and the best ways to communicate and solve the problems it causes. Left untreated, bipolar disorder can split up marriages, cause job loss and lead to suicide.
In April 2007, Miklowitz released the results of the largest federally funded study involving psychological treatment of bipolar disorder. In the study Miklowitz, who was the principal author, and other researchers reported that adding intensive psychotherapy to a bipolar patient’s medication treatment made the patient recover more rapidly from depression and one and one-half times more likely to be “clinically well” during any month of the study year, compared to those who did not receive intensive therapy. This marked the first time a major study involving hundreds of patients showed the positive effects of adding psychotherapy to treatment.
In November 2007, Miklowitz released his third book, The Bipolar Teen: What You Can Do to Help Your Child and Your Family. In the book he provides parents with information they can use to help teens who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder get well and achieve stability in their lives. He also published Bipolar Disorder: A Family-Focused Treatment Approach and The Bipolar Disorder Survival Guide. Both have been best sellers.
Miklowitz currently is leading two new studies. One examines whether family-focused treatment is effective when combined with medication for adolescents diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The second examines whether early treatment of children with a high risk of developing bipolar disorder can head off the disease’s effects before severely disrupting people’s lives. During the study, Miklowitz and his colleagues will develop a version of family-focused treatment specifically for children ages 9-17 who are showing early warning signs of bipolar illness. For more information, go to the website for the Robert D. Sutherland Center for the Evaluation and Treatment of Bipolar Disorder at rdsfoundation.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7&Itemid=69.
