Family Intervention Program Works Best for Children with Symptoms of Bipolar Disorder

Children and teens who are at a high risk of bipolar disorder can benefit from family-focused treatment, a new study says.

Bipolar disorder is a condition in which the patient experiences disruptive mood swings and depression.

For the study, researchers David J. Miklowitz and Kiki D. Chang included 40 youngsters with depression. All the participants had a family history of the disorder and had been clinically diagnosed with either cyclothymic disorder (cyclothymia) or bipolar disorder not otherwise specified (BP-NOS).

Cyclothymic disorder is a mild form of bipolar disorder with frequent occurrences of hypomania accompanied by mild depression that lasts at least two years. BP-NOS is a condition where the symptoms do not last long or the number of symptoms are too less to be fully determined as either bipolar I or II.

The participants underwent either a family-focused treatment, high-risk version (FFT-HR) or a family informational session known as educational control (EC). The FFT-HR included 12 family sessions of psychoeducation that helps the participants manage mood swings. A significant number of participants continued to follow their psychiatric medications during the study period.

At the end of the study, the FFT-HR patients showed fast recovery (within nine weeks) compared to the EC group (21 weeks).

"Youth in FFT-HR had more rapid recovery from their initial mood symptoms (hazard ratio = 2.69, p = .047), more weeks in remission, and a more favorable trajectory of YMRS scores over 1 year than youth in EC," the authors wrote.

Since an early intervention can help children recover from the disorder easily, the researchers urge parents and health practitioners to take necessary steps when they notice symptoms of the disorder in children.

"Catching bipolar disorder at its earliest stages, stabilizing symptoms that have already developed, and helping the family to cope effectively with the child's mood swings may have downstream effects that improve the long-term outcomes of high-risk children," Dr. Miklowitz said in a news release.

Findings of the study have been published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.