Family-Focused Treatment for Adolescents with Bipolar Disorder: When Is It Worth the Effort?

Several types of psychosocial interventions, including interpersonal and social rhythm therapy, have been shown to add benefit to medication management for adults with bipolar disorder. In a well-designed, well-conducted, 2-year, multisite study, 145 community-recruited adolescents diagnosed with bipolar I or II disorder (mean age, 15.6) were stratified by diagnostic group and polarity of initial episode and then randomized to protocol-driven medication management plus either 21 weekly sessions of family-focused therapy (FFT) over 9 months or three weekly psychoeducation sessions in the first month designed to mimic “enhanced” treatment as usual. FFT involved three modules on psychoeducation, communications-enhancement training, and problem…