Quality of life improvement with a psychoeducative program for bipolar disorders

  • MD Claudia Becerra-Palars, Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría "Ramón de la Fuente", Mexico
  • Psy Jessica Zapata Tellez, Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría "Ramón de la Fuente", Mexico
  • Psy Florencia Perez Domingo, Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría "Ramón de la Fuente", Mexico
  • MD Francisco Romo Nava, Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría "Ramón de la Fuente", Mexico
  • MD Margarita Horta, Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría "Ramón de la Fuente", Mexico

Introduction. The objective of psychoeducation in Bipolar Disorders (BD) is to help the patient and his family to understand and be better able to deal with the illness and to avoid relapse and recurrences of disease. There are several psychoeducative programs for BD that have showed efficacy and improvement in the course of the disease. In developing countries we need to adapt and test existing psychoeducative programs for their appropriate use. Our program is a six-month program, with weekly group sessions, based in Life Goals Program and Psychoeducation Manual for BD. Objectives. Assess the improvement in quality of life with the psychoeducative program for BD used in Affective Disorders Clinic at the Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría in México city. Methods. We followed 26 Bipolar I and II individuals (16 with psychoeducation and 10 without it), for a period of 6 months and assessed Quality of life with Endicott Quality of life Scale, before and at the end of a six months period. Results. We found differences between groups in total scores for Endicott scale (p=0.012), in subscales for Physical Wellbeing and Daily Performance, with scores related to lower quality of life in the group without psychoeducation. Conclusions. Our psychoeducation program has showed benefit in improving quality of life in subjects with BD. We should emphasize this interventions even in developing countries so that we can give the individual with BD a chance for improving the course of the disease, quality of life and global functioning in spite of the disease.