Preliminary findings from our previous investigation indicated that overall, and especially for bipolar disorder patients, inpatient family intervention (IFI) had incremental effectiveness when added to standard hospital treatment. In this proposed study, we wish to investigate an extension of the previous family intervention; namely, the effectiveness of a Psychoeducational Marital Intervention (PMI) on an outpatient basis. The sample will be 56 bipolar disorder patients and their spouses who will be randomly assigned to one of two treatment conditions in a constructive design: 1) a standard treatment involving lithium, or 2) an experimental treatment consisting of lithium treatment plus PMI. Patient and marital functioning will be assessed at admission, discharge and at follow-up points.
The specific aims of the current proposal are to test the incremental efficacy of PMI as added to the effects of lithium treatment, and to determine the relative effectiveness of PMI on certain patient and family parameters.
| Carpenter, D; Clarkin, J F; Isman, L et al. (1999) The impact of neuroticism upon married bipolar patients. J Pers Disord 13:60-6 |
| Clarkin, J F; Carpenter, D; Hull, J et al. (1998) Effects of psychoeducational intervention for married patients with bipolar disorder and their spouses. Psychiatr Serv 49:531-3 |
| Carpenter, D; Clarkin, J F; Glick, I D et al. (1995) Personality pathology among married adults with bipolar disorder. J Affect Disord 34:269-74 |
