Psychotherapy Treatment Of Teen Bipolar Disorder
Psychotherapy is an important part of the patient’s treatment, and should be initiated as soon as mood stabilizers have begun to have a positive effect. Family based interventions have been shown to:
Psychoeducation has proven to be helpful through:
Increasing knowledge about BP
Increasing support and skills for dealing with BP
Increasing positive attitudes of the patient and family members
Educating the patient and family members as to how behavior, thoughts and emotions are inter-related and work together to spiral mood upward or downward
Setting clear and measurable goals for the patient related to behavior and monitoring medication compliance
Identifying stressors and situations that may put the patient at risk for a depressive or manic episode
Increasing social skills necessary to deal with symptoms when they appear
Group therapy can be helpful for the family and the adolescent by:
Serving to educate all family members about the disorder
Teaching everyone involved how others cope with the symptoms
Preventing individuals or families from feeling alone in their struggle
Reducing the potential to destabilize the family in the face of BP
Jamison (An Unquiet Mind, 1995), in the poignant story of her struggle with BP, clearly expressed the need for both psychotherapy and medication in the following statement:
Ineffably, psychotherapy heals. It makes some sense of the confusion, reins in the terrifying thoughts and feelings, returns some control and hope and possibility of learning from it all… No pill can help me deal with the problem of not wanting to take pills; likewise, no amount of psychotherapy alone can prevent my mania and depressions. I need both (p. 89).
More information on Bipolar Disorder:
