Medicine, combined with psychotherapy, enables people with bipolar disorder to get better faster and stay better longer, according to a new seven-year CU study that involved 293 people with bipolar depression.
Patients who did intensive psychotherapy in addition to taking their medication were more than 1.5 times more likely to be clinically well during any given month of the study year in comparison to the group that did not receive therapy.
“The take home message here is that psychotherapy is a vital part of the effort to stabilize episodes of depression in people suffering from bipolar disorder,” said psychology professor David Miklowitz, the principal author of the study. “If you get regular intensive therapy, the outcome for depression is going to be better than if you just take medications and have a couple of case management sessions.”
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