Bipolar Disorder A Family-Focused Treatment Approach

Family-focused psychoeducational treatment (FFT) is among a very small number of psychosocial treatments that have been found to be effective in multiple studies to improve the course of bipolar disorder. This indispensable guide describes how to implement FFT with adult and adolescent patients and their family members. Provided are practical procedures for helping families understand the nature of bipolar disorder, strengthen their communication skills, solve day-to-day problems, and reduce the risk and severity of relapse. The book incorporates state-of-the-art knowledge on the illness and its biological and psychosocial management. More than a dozen reproducible handouts are included.

I. Bipolar Disorder and Families: Clinical and Research Background1. Bipolar Disorder: Why Family Treatment?2. The Nature of Bipolar Disorder and Its Impact on the Family 3. Family and Social Factors in the Course of Bipolar Disorder II. Conducting Family-Focused Treatment4. Planning the First Encounter 5. The Functional Assessment6. Family Psychoeducation: The Initial Sessions7. Family Psychoeducation: Etiology, Treatment, and Self-Management8. Family Psychoeducation: Dealing with Resistances9. Communication Enhancement Training: Rationale and Mechanics 10. Communication Enhancement Training: Clinical Issues 11. Dealing with Family Problems12. Managing Crises in Family-Focused Treatment 13. Termination

David J. Miklowitz, PhD, is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), School of Medicine and Senior Clinical Researcher at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. He directs the Child and Adolescent Mood Disorders Program and the Integrative Study Center in Mood Disorders at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. Dr. Miklowitz is a recipient of the Distinguished Investigator Award from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, the Mogens Schou Award for Research from the International Society for Bipolar Disorders, the Bipolar Mood Disorder Research Award from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and the Gerald L. Klerman Senior Investigator Award from the Depressive and Bipolar Support Alliance.