Cognitive–behavioral therapy for bipolar disorder

Abstract

Bipolar disorder is one of the most serious and prevalent psychiatric disorders. The aim of the present article is to review the efficiency of cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT) for bipolar patients. Some studies show consistent evidence that cognitive therapy, concomitant to psycho-education and pharmacological treatment, offers efficacy in different phases of the disease. In most of the studies, patients undergoing CBT showed improvements in quality of life, with a reduction in both frequency and duration of mood episodes, as well as higher degrees of compliance and fewer hospitalizations. More studies are required to prove the effectiveness of CBT for bipolar disorder in the context of standardizing diagnostic criteria and measuring instruments to evaluate the disorder’s different phases and severity.

Keywords::

• bipolar disorder
• cognitive–behavioral therapy
• efficacy
• psychotherapy
• review

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was supported by the Brazilian Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), Grant 470382/2006-6. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.