Does adjunctive family therapy enhance recovery from bipolar I mood episodes?

BACKGROUND

Family therapy is sometimes used as adjunctive treatment to pharmacotherapy to help patients recover from mood episodes of bipolar I disorder. However, the efficacy of this practice is not known.

METHODS

Ninety-two patients meeting criteria for a current bipolar I mood episode were randomly assigned to family therapy plus pharmacotherapy, multifamily psychoeducational group therapy plus pharmacotherapy, or pharmacotherapy alone. Time to recovery was analyzed with survival analysis.

RESULTS

The proportion of subjects within each treatment group who recovered did not significantly differ, nor did time to recovery.

LIMITATIONS: The analyses did not include other outcomes such as psychosocial functioning, prophylaxis against recurrences of mood episodes, or compliance with pharmacotherapy.

CONCLUSIONS

Neither adjunctive family therapy nor adjunctive multifamily psychoeducational group therapy significantly improves the rate of recovery from mood episodes of bipolar I disorder, compared to treatment with pharmacotherapy alone.