Family psychoeducation: an adjunctive intervention for children with bipolar disorder

Childhood onset bipolar disorder is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, yet effective treatment strategies have remained underdeveloped and understudied. While some headway is being made vis-a-vis pharmacologic treatments, empirical efforts have not focused on adjunctive psychosocial interventions for childhood bipolar disorder. In this review, we discuss psychoeducation, delivered via workshops, multifamily psychoeducation groups, or individual-family psychoeducation, as an adjunct to the ongoing pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, and school-based interventions for children with bipolar disorder. We review the theoretical rationale for psychoeducation, including expressed emotion and caregiver concordance; summarize findings in the adult literature; and then describe our development and testing of psychoeducational interventions for mood-impaired children. Data from three pilot studies are reviewed, and progress on two studies currently underway is presented. We conclude with current limitations of psychoeducation and recommendations for future study to develop psychoeducation as an empirically supported adjunctive intervention for children with bipolar disorder.