[Follow-up study of 3 years group therapy with lithium treatment]

Group psycho-education for bipolar patients has been shown to increase patient self-esteem and to cut down on the number of re-admissions. For the purposes of this study, a comparison was made between a 10-sessions group programme, without additional written information (26 patients) and a highly structured 5-sessions group programme which did include written information (15 patients). Measurements were done before and after group therapy over a 3-year follow-up period. In the 10-sessions programme there was evidence of improved patient self-esteem; patients in both programmes reported that they had benefitted from them and that subsequently they had fewer psychosocial problems. In the 3-year follow-up period, there was a significant decrease in the non-compliance (from 54 and 47 percent to 31 and 33 respectively) and hospitalization ratio in both programme groups. The ratio of hospitalizations in the first and second programmes was: 0.33 and 0.25 a year previously; 0.25 and 0.26 respectively whilst taking lithium; and 0.08 and 0.09 at the end of the group education of 3-year follow-up period.