Psychosocial treatment and interventions for bipolar disorder: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic disorder with a high relapse rate, significant general disability and burden and with a psychosocial impairment that often persists despite pharmacotherapy. This indicates the need for effective and affordable adjunctive psychosocial interventions, tailored to the individual patient. Several psychotherapeutic techniques have tried to fill this gap, but which intervention is suitable for each patient remains unknown and it depends on the phase of the illness. METHODS: The papers were located with searches in PubMed/MEDLINE through May 1st 2015 with a combination of key words. The review followed the recommendations of the Preferred Items for Reporting of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement. RESULTS: The search returned 7,332 papers; after the deletion of duplicates, 6,124 remained and eventually 78 were included for the analysis. The literature supports the usefulness only of psychoeducation for the relapse prevention of mood episodes and only in a selected subgroup of patients at an early stage of the disease who have very good, if not complete remission, of the acute episode. Cognitive-behavioural therapy and interpersonal and social rhythms therapy could have some beneficial effect during the acute phase, but more data are needed. Mindfulness interventions could only decrease anxiety, while interventions to improve neurocognition seem to be rather ineffective. Family intervention seems to have benefits mainly for caregivers, but it is uncertain whether they have an effect on patient outcomes. CONCLUSION: The current review suggests that the literature supports the usefulness only of specific psychosocial interventions targeting specific aspects of BD in selected subgroups of patients.

Predominant polarity as a course specifier for bipolar disorder: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Predominant polarity (PP) is a proposed course specifier for bipolar disorder, which was not incorporated in the DSM-5 as a descriptor for the nosology of bipolar disorder (BD). Here we perform a systematic review of original studies about PP. METHODS: A computerized search of MEDLINE/Pubmed, EMBASE and Web of Science databases from inception to October 6th, 2013 was performed with keywords, including 'bipolar disorder', 'polarity' and 'predominant polarity'. RESULTS: A total of 19 studies met inclusion criteria. A unifying definition and conceptualization for PP is lacking. A PP is found in approximately half of BD patients. Most studies that included type I BD patients found the manic PP to be more prevalent, while studies that included type II BD participants found a higher prevalence of depressive PP. The depressive PP has been consistently associated with a depressive onset of illness, a delayed diagnosis of BD, type II BD and higher rates of suicidal acts. The manic PP is associated with a younger onset of illness, a first episode manic/psychotic and a higher rate of substance abuse. Evidence suggests that PP may influence responses to acute treatment for bipolar depression. Furthermore, evidences indicate that PP should be considered for the selection of maintenance treatments for BD. LIMITATIONS: There are few prospective studies on PP. There were disparate definitions for PP across studies. CONCLUSIONS: The concept of PP provides relevant information for clinicians. Future studies should investigate the genetic and biological underpinnings of PP.

Reasons and clinical outcomes of antipsychotic treatment switch in outpatients with schizophrenia in real-life clinical settings: the ETOS observational study.

BACKGROUND: Patients under antipsychotic treatment for schizophrenia commonly exhibit poor adherence to treatment, high rates of treatment discontinuation, and frequent treatment changes. The ETOS study aimed to identify the reasons leading physicians to decide to switch antipsychotic treatment in outpatients with schizophrenia and to evaluate the outcome of this switch. METHODS: ETOS was an observational 18-week (four visits) study in outpatients 18 to 65 years old, diagnosed with schizophrenia according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - 4th edition criteria at least 6 months prior to enrolment, who were initiated on a new antipsychotic monotherapy treatment within the 2 weeks prior to enrollment. A total of 574 patients were recruited by 87 hospital- and office-based physicians. Ethical approval was obtained prior to study initiation (NCT00999895). RESULTS: The final analysis included 568 patients, 39.0 ± 11.2 years old with mean disease duration of 11.7 years. The male-to-female ratio was 53:47. The main reason for switching antipsychotic treatment was lack of tolerability (n = 369, 65.0%), followed by lack of efficacy (n = 249, 43.8%). Following treatment switch, 87.9% of patients (n = 499) showed meaningful clinical benefit by achieving a Clinical Global Impression-Clinical Benefit score of ≤4 at the final visit. By the end of the study, total Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, Clinical Global Impression-Improvement, Clinical Global Impression-Severity, and Simpson-Angus Scale scores demonstrated significant mean decreases of 31.69, 0.70, 1.14, and 11.30, respectively (all p < 0.0001). Treatment adherence remarkably improved. CONCLUSION: In the ETOS study, switch of antipsychotic monotherapy for reasons relating to lack of efficacy and/or tolerability was associated with significantly improved clinical benefit and significant increase of patients' adherence to treatment.