Efficacy of cognitive behavioral group therapy on depression, anxiety and self-esteem of patients with bipolar disorder type I

Bipolar mood disorder type I is a chronic, debilitating disorder with lifetime prevalence rate of 1.4 to 1.6 percent. The aim of the present study is to investigate the efficacy of cognitive behavioral group therapy on depression, anxiety and self-esteem of bipolar patients after remission of acute phase.
The statistical community of this clinical trial was all male patients with bipolar I disorder, who admitted in Ibn-e-Sina hospital in 2011-12 (acute phase stabilized with medications). Amongst them, 30 participants were selected based on convenient sampling and randomly allocated in two equal-size groups of intervention and control. Intervention group received 10 sessions of cognitive behavioral group therapy, while participants in control group were under 10 sessions of an unstructured supportive group. Participants were assessed before, immediately after, 2 months and 6 months after interventions, using Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory and Eysenck self esteem questionnaire. Data analyzed through descriptive statistics, independent t-test and covariance analysis by SPSS software version 19.
Intervention group showed a significant decrease in scores of depression as well as anxiety in assessments done immediately after treatment and after 2 months and 6 months of follow up compared to control group (P Cognitive behavioral group therapy could be a helpful adjunctive therapy to medications in controlling anxiety and depression of bipolar I patients and it could be considered in rehabilitation programs for these patients.