CU professor assisted on psychiatric study emphasizing benefit of therapy
A new study conducted in part by Dr. David Miklowitz, professor of psychology and psychiatry at CU’s Wardenburg Health Center, indicates new advancements in the treatment for bipolar disorder.
The study, titled “Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder,” was released in the April issue of Archives of General Psychiatry. It confirms the successful results of combining intensive psychotherapy with psychiatric medication.
“The overall finding is that people with bipolar disorder seem to get well faster with psychotherapy and medication,” Miklowitz said. “What you get is the person recovers more quickly and they stay well longer than if they used medication only.”
The seven-year study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and is considered the largest federally-funded research program ever conducted on bipolar treatment. Fifteen different universities took part in the study, sampling 293 adult patients.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, bipolar disorder is a debilitating disorder marked by severe mood swings between depression and mania that affects about 2.6 percent of Americans every year.
The study divided the patients into two groups. One group was given mood-stabilizing medication and a brief three-session psycho-educational program. The second group was given mood stabilizers and nine months of intensive psychotherapy.
“We knew therapy was useful before, but we didn’t know that the kind of therapy that works well are the psycho-educational therapies,” Miklowitz said.
After one year of therapy, 64 percent of patients in the intensive therapy became well. In the more brief comparison group, 52 percent of the patients got well.
The percentages may not seem that much different, but the speed of recovery is.
The intensive therapy group got well an average of 110 days faster and were 1.6 times more likely to be clinically well in any given month of the study than those in the brief treatment.
“Patients are more likely to stay on their medications when they’re in therapy,” Miklowitz said. “And when a patient gets therapy, it’s easier for people to see the early warning signs of recurrence and what to do when those warning signs are present.”
Dr. Carol Ryan, medical director of psychological health and psychiatry at Wardenburg, said the data analysis with a controlled study of bipolar treatment is rather new.
“There’s evidence now that a certain form of cognitive therapy works, and that’s important,” Ryan said. “I think it all fits together well.”
Ryan said there is a very physical aspect to some of the more severe bipolar depressions.
“There are some medications that can be entirely beneficial for the treatment of these individuals, but therapy is a really important part of bipolar treatment.”
Medical health professionals acknowledge there is still much to be done in the treatment of bipolar disorder. They recognize the need to develop better treatments specifically aimed at patient suicide.
“There’s a lot we don’t know about how to recognize the disorder from a biological perspective,” Miklowitz said. “From a treatment point of view, we don’t have bipolar depression fully licked yet.”
Contact Campus Press staff writer Tim McAvoy at tim.mcavoy@thecampuspress.com.
