Functional Remediation for Bipolar Disorder

Summary

Bipolar disorder is a severe, chronic and recurrent illness, that affects nearly the 5% of the population. Recent research point at the relevance and persistence of cognitive dysfunctions in bipolar patients even beyond the acute phases, although cognitive impairment has been classically associated with schizophrenia and not bipolar disorder. Current findings suggest that some intervention is needed in order to improve not only affective symptoms but also cognitive dysfunctions, so that patients could benefit from cognitive remediation techniques to improve cognitive impairment and the functional outcome. There is no previous research on the efficacy of cognitive remediation programs on bipolar disorder.

Conditions

• Bipolar Disorder

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Functional remediation

The functional remediation program is composed of 21 weekly sessions of 90 minutes, each aimed at improving the following cognitive domains: attention, memory and executive functions and psychosocial functioning. The program will be performed in an 12- to 15-patient group conducted by 2 experienced neuropsychologists with previous experience with bipolar patients and specific training on patients' group management.

BEHAVIORAL

Psychoeducation

Group psychoeducation is a tested and manualized intervention consisting of 21 weekly sessions of 90 minutes aimed at improving 4 main issues: illness awareness, treatment adherence, early detection of prodromal symptoms and recurrences, and lifestyle regularity.

BEHAVIORAL

Treatment as usual

The patients will not receive any add-on psychosocial intervention. All patients will keep on receiving standard psychiatric treatment.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Hospital Clinic of Barcelona

  collaborator OTHER

• Benito Menni

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University of Valencia

  collaborator OTHER

• Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge

  collaborator OTHER

• Universidad de Oviedo

  collaborator OTHER

• Fundación de Investigación Biomédica - Hospital Universitario de La Princesa

  collaborator OTHER

• Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañon

  collaborator OTHER

• Hospital Santiago Apóstol de Vitoria

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Fundació Institut de Recerca de l'Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau

  collaborator OTHER

• Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental

  lead NETWORK

Principal Investigators

• Eduard Vieta, MD, PhD · Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

55 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2009-01-31

Primary Completion

2010-12-31

Completion

2010-12-31