Treatment for Bi-Polar I Disorder, Research Paper Example

Patients diagnosed with Bi-Polar I disorder and a history of substance abuse and/or suicide is a strong predictor for future suicide attempts. There is a high rate of suicide findings with patients from the Western civilization. “Of 158 bi-polar patients studied in the Chinese world only four of them died from suicide.” (Tsaia, 1999). Those with a history of suicide are more likely to have issues with interpersonal relationships including family life. Some show problems with changing occupations often, also.

Therapists use psychotherapy to help patients with Bi-Polar Disorder I to help them learn better communicating skills in order to improve their relationships. This is used in combination with medication. “Most therapy involves spoken communication though some can involve written forms or art or therapy.” (“Treat Bi-Polar Depression”). Prodrome detection is a number one means of treating a patient where they keep daily or weekly dairies of their symptoms in order to help them notice triggers to the disease. Then the patient and doctor help to create a plan of action when the symptoms reappear. Cognitive therapy helps the patient to recognize negative and distorted thoughts so the treatment can help change their outlook on things. It is based on the premise that psychological stress causes distorted thoughts. Interpersonal/Social Rhythm helps the patient to understand that personal relationships can cause stress in their life and helps to recognize and eliminate these stressors. Family focused therapy involves the whole family and their role to help the bi-polar patient reduce stressors related to family life and other contributors. This is a team effort. This includes psychotherapy and psycho-education therapy combined. The them how to understand the disease to eliminate these stressors and to help the patient recognize these stressors coming from family relationships.

“The client-therapist relationship is important both as a primary element of therapy (an effective element of therapy in and of itself) and as a supportive or secondary element of therapy (an effective element of therapy through secondary effects).” (“The Therapeutic Relationship Research and Theory”). Bowers and Clum have shown through extensive study that the relationship with the therapist is more important than the technique (1988). This comes to no surprise that the tests revealed a pronounced 20% increase because it is important for a person to feel comfortable and trust their therapist in order to be successful with their particular sessions. A person has a tendency to work on issues more avidly if they are in a united and trustworthy relationship with someone and the same goes for the patient/counselor relationship. Often if patients do not feel comfortable with their therapist they may be tempted to quit therapy altogether. Blanck & Blanck “state fears of abandonment by and separation from the therapist (Mahler) and too strong feelings regarding dependence on the therapist” can often lead to transference and brings a patient to terminating counseling. “Thus, according to these theorists, the therapeutic relationship has at least secondary or preventative effects in therapy as a factor that is involved in client’s beliefs and feelings about the effectiveness of therapy as well as maintenance of therapy services.” (“The Therapeutic Relationship Research and Theory”).

References

Tsaia, S. Characteristics and Psychosocial Problems of Patients with Bi-Polar Disorder at High Risk for Suicide Attempt Volume 2 Issue 1 January 1999.

Treat Bi-Polar Depression Retrieved October 30, 2010 from, http://www.survivingbipolar.net/treatment/psychotherapeutictechniques.html

The Therapeutic Relationship Research and Theory Retrieved October 30, 2010 from, http://www.psychpage.com/learning/library/counseling/thxrel2.htm