[Role of associations in bipolar patients]

Providing information to the patients and their families represents one of today's new conditions in the management of the depressed. It will help their adaptation to the illness and its effects. It will maintain a good therapeutic alliance among patients and practitioners, and will enhance their treatment adherence thus improving their quality of life. Several aspects are essential in the transmission of this information: it must be available to every patient, easily accessible, concise, repeated and revised as necessary, discouraging self-diagnosis and self-prescription. This education must be given personally by the physicians and the pharmacists. Depressed patients may also have an access to complementary sources: books, magazines and more rarely scientific journals. Patients' associations provide another potential source of information, offering a comprehensive approach to the patient and the illness. France-Déxpression is a depressive and manic-depressive patients association. Its goals are to provide information and support to the patients and their families, promoting a better understanding and recognition of depressive and manic-depressive illness.