Effects of Family Intervention on Psychosocial Functioning and Mood Symptoms of Youth at High Risk for Bipolar Disorder

Weintraub, et al. (2022) published their article in Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. I like the fact that they contrast Family-focused therapy (FFT) with a psychoeducation-only treatment (EC). Previous research had found that FFT is associated with reduced rates of mood episodes among youth at high risk for bipolar disorder (BD). They used 119 youths with mood symptoms and a family history of BD and a four-month long intervention. Here’s more from their summary:

Participants were rated on mood symptom severity and provided self-ratings of psychosocial functioning across domains of family, social–emotional, and school functioning. Repeated measures mixed modeling and bootstrapped mediational analyses evaluated the effects of treatment conditions and psychosocial functioning on mood improvements immediately posttreatment and over 2 years of follow-up. Results: Youths in FFT reported greater improvements in family functioning over 24 months compared to those in EC, F(5, 76.8) = 3.1, p < .05. Improvements in family functioning partially mediated participants’ improvements in depressive symptoms, B = −0.22, p < .01; 95% CI [−0.55, −0.02]. The effects of FFT versus EC on family functioning were stronger among youth with comorbid anxiety and externalizing disorders than among youth without these comorbid disorders. Conclusions: The findings suggest a temporal link between changes in youths’ perceptions of family functioning and improvements in depressive symptoms among high-risk youth in FFT. Family conflict and cohesion are important treatment targets for youth who present with early signs of BD. Future studies should examine whether changes in observational measures of family interaction precede improvements in mood among high-risk youth. 

I find their conclusions especially important as a potential intervention with young people at risk for bipolar disorder.