Collaborative Care for patients with a bipolar disorder: a randomized controlled trial. (WC2010-044)
Background
Starting date: 01/03/2010A bipolar disorder is a severe mental illness with often many consequences on daily life forpatients as well as caregivers/family/friends. Treatment currently exists of pharmacotherapy, sometimes combined with psychotherapy, psycho education and teaching selfmanagement skills. A proportion of patients shows satisfying responses to this treatment, and the illness remains relatively stabile over time. Another subgroup of patients however does not respond adequately to the treatment offered. They show a rather low response to therapeutic efforts and suffer from frequent manic or depressive episodes and cognitive impairments. Often they have little social support and show low social functioning. Frequently co-morbid psychiatric and somatic disorders are present which complicate the course of the bipolair disorder. For this subgroup of patients a specialised multidisciplinary approach is required, with optimal integration of the efforts of the different professionals who are involved in treatment and care. It is also important that the patient is actively involved in treatment, e.g. in the definition of goals of treatment and their priority. In literature such a treatment is referred to as 'Collaborative Care'. Little research has been performed on the effects of such an integrated treatment program for patients with a bipolar disorder. Bauer et al. (2006), Simon et al. (2005, 2006) en Suppes et al. (2003) researched the effects of multidisciplinary treatment methods for people with a bipolar disorder and the results are promising.