The Effectiveness of Emotional Schema Therapy on Impulsivity and Mood Symptoms of Women with Bipolar Disorder

The research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of emotional schema therapy on the mood symptoms and impulsivity of women with bipolar disorder (I, II).

Methods and Materials: 

Present research was semi-experimental study with pretest-posttest design and follow-up with control group that was performed on 30 female patients with bipolar disorder referring to the Farabi hospital in Isfahan in 2016. Participants were selected by available sampling, then they were randomly assigned to experimental (n=15) and control group (n=15). Participants responded to Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (2004), Hamilton Questionnaire and Young Mania Scale in three steps pretest, posttest and follow-up. Experimental group in addition to medication, they received emotional schema therapy in group method during 14, 90-minute sessions while the control group did not received any cognitive intervention. Descriptive statistics methods and analysis of multivariate Covariance and were used for analyzing the data

Findings showed that emotional schema therapy had impact on the dimensions of impulsivity and mood symptoms (depression and mania) of bipolar patients and this effectiveness continued to be sustained in fallow up 3 months later.

Applying emotional schema therapy along with drug therapy can be effective intervention for treatment of mood symptoms and impulsivity in patients with bipolar disorder.