Bi-REAL - DBT Skills Online Group Intervention for Bipolar Disorder

NCT ID: NCT04797351

Last Updated: 2023-07-18

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

109 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2020-09-01

Study Completion Date

2022-01-31

Brief Summary

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Bipolar disorder (BD) is a serious mental disorder characterized by episodes of mania/hypomania and/or depression. Compared to the general population, these individuals present functional impairment, and life interference subclinical symptoms even between mood episodes, and higher mood instability and suicide rates with a lower quality of life. Given the chronic and phasic course of this disorder, patients are great consumers of health services and in Portugal there is no specialised psychotherapeutic approach to Bipolar Disorder, having pharmacological treatment alone as the main therapeutic response, and a considerable number of patients are not fully stabilized with drug treatments, experiencing residual symptoms. Although studies suggest that certain psychological therapies can be helpful for people experiencing full mood disorder episodes, or to reduce risk of future episodes, there are no gold standard and evidence-based psychological therapies for BD, and recent systematic reviews on psychosocial interventions for BD identify Dialectical-Behavior Therapy (DBT) as promising.

Our research is sustained in a recovery based perspective, which means we intend to develop a sense of hope, understanding, empowerment and work towards a meaningful and satisfying life, focusing on less clinical outcomes. Recovery is a concept that looks beyond the traditional clinical definitions which focus on reduced symptomatology, hospitalisation and medication compliance, and focuses on having a better sense of living even though you might have some clinical symptomatology.

DBT was developed as an approach for highly emotionally and behaviourally dysregulated people, and it has been referred as promising in BD patients. DBT aims to give individuals who experience quick and intense shifts in mood, skills to manage and regulate their emotions.

People with Bipolar Disorder can benefit from skills to regulate their emotions and interpersonal efficacy, which is frequently affected by mood changes, and therefore have a life worth living, feeling skillful and empowered to deal with challenges.

Our study aimed to develop a 12 session DBT-skills group adapting the sessions and skills to be used with this client group (Bi-REAL - Respond Effectively and Live mindfully).

This study aims to test acceptability, feasibility and efficacy of this 12 session DBT skills pilot randomized group intervention for patients with Bipolar Disorders.

Detailed Description

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Bipolar disorder (BD) is a serious mental disorder characterized by episodes of mania or hypomania and depression, occurring with a typically cyclical course. In addition to mood instability, BD has been associated with significant functional impairment, lower quality of life, and higher rates of suicide compared to the general population. Prevalence of BD in Europe is of approximately 1%, with few evidences of gender differences. Despite the advances in pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments, BD still entails multiple relapses. Prediction of the course and outcome continues to be challenging, and BD has been considered the sixth leading cause of disability-adjusted life years in the world, with high costs to society, patients and mental health services.

Even though the etiology of BD is still unclear, it is multifactorial with multiple genetic and environmental influences interacting with each other. Fewer studies have explored psychosocial factors in BD's development and maintenance, however, some risk factors have been identified, namely negative early experiences, family characteristics, and adverse life circumstances. Researchers also found significantly higher levels of childhood abuse and current internalized shame in BD individuals, when compared to a control group. It is also known that stressful life events possibly work as triggers in affective symptoms, and they are frequently stigmatized because of their condition, jeopardizing their social and work context.

Pharmacological interventions prevail as the primary management tool in BD, however, most patients are not fully stabilized on drug therapies alone and a large number of patients experience residual symptoms so that full functional recovery is uncommon. Hence, growing evidence and international guidelines support the need to use psychosocial interventions as adjuvant therapies to improve recovery in BD.

Our research is sustained in a recovery based perspective, which means we intend to develop a sense of hope, understanding, empowerment and work towards a meaningful and satisfying life, focusing on less clinical outcomes. Recovery is a concept that looks beyond the traditional clinical definitions which focus on reduced symptomatology, hospitalisation and medication compliance, and focuses on having a better sense of living even though you might have some clinical symptomatology.

The most empirically tested psychosocial interventions for BD include Psychoeducation (PE) and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with supporting evidence of their efficacy. However, there are also contradictory findings, contesting the efficacy of CBT and PE, and that is why there is still no Goldstandard regarding BD psychosocial intervention. A recent review regarding empirically supported psychosocial interventions for BD, discusses promising findings regarding contextual therapies, namely Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and further research is encouraged.

DBT seems to be a promising approach to apply with BD, given its components for emotion regulation, and has already been found to reduce depressive and manic symptoms as well as to improve emotional dysregulation in BD groups. Based on the above-mentioned, further empirical research to clarify about contextual therapies efficacy (particularly DBT), for BD is essential and necessary which is why we constructed our 12-session skills intervention Bi-REAL (Respond Effectively and Live mindfully), based on some preliminary studies and suggested adaptations for DBT for Bipolar Disorder.

This study aims to test acceptability, feasibility and efficacy of this 12 session DBT skills pilot randomized group intervention for patients with Bipolar Disorders.

Conditions

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Bipolar Disorder

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Participants are randomly distributed into 2 groups:

Experimental Group: Treatment as Usual (Public health services and psychiatric support) + 1 Pre-session + 12 session DBT Skills Group Experimental Group Condition 2: Specialized support (Psychoeducation in Bipolar Disorder + Psychological support) + (1 Pre-session) 12 session DBT Skills group + TAU Control Group Condition 1: TAU + Waiting List
Primary Study Purpose

TREATMENT

Blinding Strategy

SINGLE

Outcome Assessors
After the intervention participants will be interviewed by a health professional, not involved in the study, to assess feedback - regarding facilitators, program sessions, interest and usefulness.

Study Groups

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Experimental Group

* Pre-treatment session + 12 Sessions Group Intervention
* TAU - Treatment as usual (Psychiatric support through Public health system)

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Dialectical Behavior Therapy - Skills

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Pre-treatment session + 12 sessions DBT Skills Group (only) intervention

Control Group

* TAU - Treatment as usual (Psychiatric support through Public health system)
* Waiting list (will have access to the intervention program BI-REAL after the 3 month follow up assessment)

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

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Dialectical Behavior Therapy - Skills

Pre-treatment session + 12 sessions DBT Skills Group (only) intervention

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Other Intervention Names

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Bi-REAL

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* A diagnosis of bipolar disorder according to DSM-5 (BD-I, BD-II and Other (un)specified bipolar and related disorder) (APA, 2013), identified by psychiatrists or any assistant physician, and confirmed through CIBD;
* A history of two or more episodes of illness meeting DSM-5 criteria for mania, hypomania, major depressive disorder or mixed affective disorder, one of which must have been within 5 year of recruitment.
* Mood symptoms cause interference in their life (currently)
* Having a computer/tablet with access to internet, zoom installed, a microphone and camera.
* Living in Portugal and with good comprehension of Portuguese at a level sufficient to complete self-report instruments and clinical interview.

Exclusion Criteria

* Active suicide ideation
* Bipolar disorder secondary to an organic cause;
* Continuous illicit substance misuse resulting in uncertain primary diagnosis;
* Acute episode of mania, hypomania or major depressive episode;
* Other high risk pervasive disorders such as Borderline Personality Disorder; persistent self-injury;
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

65 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sponsors

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Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

OTHER

Sponsor Role collaborator

ADEB - Associação de Apoio a Doentes Depressivos e Bipolares

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role collaborator

Unidade Local de Saúde de Coimbra, EPE

OTHER

Sponsor Role collaborator

Centro Hospitalar de Leiria

OTHER

Sponsor Role collaborator

Centro Hospitalar do Oeste

OTHER

Sponsor Role collaborator

University of Coimbra

OTHER

Sponsor Role collaborator

IPM - Institute of Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role collaborator

Julieta Azevedo

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Julieta Azevedo

PhD student in Clinical Psychology

Responsibility Role SPONSOR_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

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Julieta M Azevedo, MS

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Coimbra - CINEICC

Locations

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Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences - University of Coimbra

Coimbra, , Portugal

Site Status

Countries

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Portugal

References

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Provided Documents

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Document Type: Study Protocol and Statistical Analysis Plan

View Document

Other Identifiers

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BD/130116/2017_Pilot

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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