A positive psychology intervention for patients with bipolar depression: a randomized pilot trial

Abstract

Background: There are few effective treatments for bipolar depression, a common and debilitating illness. Aims: We aimed to examine the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a four-week, telephonedelivered positive psychology (PP) intervention for patients with bipolar depression. Methods: Twenty-five patients hospitalized for bipolar depression were randomized to receive a PP (n=14) or control condition (CC; n=11) intervention. Following discharge, participants completed weekly exercises and phone calls with a study trainer. PP intervention feasibility was assessed by the number of exercises completed, and acceptability was examined on 5-point Likerttype scales of ease and utility. Between-group differences on psychological constructs at 4 and 8 weeks post-enrollment were assessed using mixed effects regression models. Results: Participants in the PP group completed an average of three out of four PP exercises and found PP exercises to be subjectively helpful, though neither easy nor difficult. Compared to CC, the PP intervention led to trends towards greater improvements in positive affect and optimism at follow-up, with large effect sizes (modified Cohen's d=0.95-1.24). PP had variable, nonsignificant effects on negative psychological constructs. Conclusions: Larger, randomized trials are needed to further evaluate the efficacy of this intervention in this high-risk population.

The 2020 Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists clinical practice guidelines for mood disorders

“…Starting with the World Health Organization’s holistic definition of health as not merely the absence of disease, the importance of flourishing as a focus of mental health efforts is seen in the recovery-oriented practice prescribed by national mental health policies (e.g. Commonwealth of Australia, 2013; Paterson et al, 2018; UK Department of Health, 2011; US Department of Health and Human Services, 2003), the elevation of quality of life (Morton et al, 2017) and the personal growth targets of positive psychology (Celano et al, 2020). The MDcpg 2015 recommended that the aims of mood disorder treatment should go beyond symptom relief to include resilience and improved well-being, and this position continues in the MDcpg 2020 .…”

Effects of smartphone-based interventions and monitoring on bipolar disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Two of the ten eligible studies included patients with BD and patients with other mood disorders[ 15 , 21 ]. Eight studies included only participants with BD diagnosed according to DSM or ICD-10[ 14 , 16 - 20 , 22 , 23 ]. The mean age of the sample ranged from 16 to 59 years (median, 38 years).…”

“…The literature base for BD appears larger than that for other affective disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a recent meta-analysis in this field that included only five relevant articles[ 27 ]. Furthermore, six of our ten articles were published within the past 5 years[ 14 - 16 , 18 , 21 , 22 ], which means that our analysis reflected the effectiveness of the most updated smartphone-based intervention tools.…”

Childhood maltreatment and self-harm in Chinese adolescents: moderation and mediation via resilience

“…Two types of intervention that focusing on improving emotion dysregulation to antagonize SH have been developed in clinical practice, one is dialectical behavior therapy, the other is acceptance-based emotion regulation group therapy. Besides, a telephone-based therapy has been found effective in positive emotion regulation among patients with bipolar depression [ 46 , 47 ]. On the other hand, as both family support and interpersonal assistance are primary sources of social support, enhancing social support might be another promising direction in preventing CM associated SH among teenagers.…”