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Bipolar disorder and family-focused treatment in Turkey

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Bipolar disorder and family-focused treatment in Turkey

Ten Turkish patients with either DSM-IV I or II bipolar disorder and their families attended a 9-month, 21-session psychoeducational treatment plan that ran alongside more traditional medication treatment plans.

The plan, called 'Family Focused Therapy' (FFT), has been successful as an adjunct to medication within North America, but had never been tested outside of US borders. So it was interesting to see if the same positive results could be replicated in a non-Western culture.

It turns out that very few changes were needed to be made to 'fit' Turkish culture (principally in turning some of the written assignments into more a more culturally appropriate oral communication) and patients improved their Global Assessment of Functioning scores and Clinical Global Impression scores, pre- and post-treatment.

FFT is a family intervention for bipolar disorder designed by Miklowitz & Goldstein (1997) and runs for 21 sessions over a 9-month period. It has been been shown to be more effective than crisis management in longer-term survival without mood disorder relapse, as well as reducing the severity of depressive and manic symptoms, over a two-year period. It has also allegedly hastened the time to recovery from acute depressive episodes compared to other psychoeducative treatments.

The Turkish FFT therapist was trained by Dr Miklowitz during a weekend workshop, followed by email-based supervision. The therapist's manual was translated into Turkish by a colleague of Dr Miklowitz and reviewed and approved by other clinicians experienced in FFT.

It showed that FFT can be effectively used outside of a North American, Western culture as long as care is taken to 'fit' the therapy into the local culture, including use of language appropriate to the local culture.

References:

Miklowitz, D.J., & Goldstein, M.J. (1997). Bipolar disorder: A family-focused treatment approach. New York: Guilford Press

Ozerdem, A., Oguz, M., Miklowitz, D., & Cimilli, C. (2009). Family Focused Treatment for Patients with Bipolar Disorder in Turkey: A Case Series. Family Process, Sep2009, Vol. 48 Issue 3, p417-428

Please note the medical disclaimer.

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