There are many controlled studies of Psychoeducation and Psychotherapy with differing type and length of treatment.

To find out the effects of a cognitive-psychoeducative group intervention

The aim of the study is to investigate the effects of a cognitive-psychoeducative group therapy (CPT) vs Treatment as usual (TAU) with additional information group in patients with ongoing stable pharmacotherapy on relapse prevention, compliance, coping-behaviour, illness concepts and quality of life.

Patients with BP I or BP II were diagnosed with MINI and treated either with 14 sessions of group-CPT (with 8 hours separate sessions for significant others) or got an information book for patients on bipolar disorder and 3 group-sessions of information and discussion with patients and relatives. Booster sessions were given for both groups after 6 and 9 months.Follow-up after 12 and 24 months. Evaluation was carried through on number and type of relapses, duration of inpatient episodes, with scales for mania and depression, WHO-QoL-BREV, Ilness-concept scale,Medication Attitude questionnaire (LAQ), Medication Compliance Questionnaire (MCQ), Coping (SVF-120).

100 patients with Bipolar disorder (76 BP I and 24 BP II) were treated (52 with CPT and 48 with TAU plus information group). After 14 weeks treatment there was an improvement in illness concepts and compliance in both groups.At 12-month follow-up there was a significant decrease in number of manic episodes in both groups, but for depressive episodes only in the cognitive-psychoeducative group.

CPT effective in relapse prevention, TAU+info effective against manic but not depressive relapses.