García- Alocen, A. 1 , Ruiz de Azua, S. 1, 4 , Martinez-Cengotitabengoa, M. 1, 3 , Bermudez-Ampudia, C. 1 , Gonzalez- Ortega, I. 1, 2 , Ugarte, A. 1 , Lopez, P. 1, 4 , Zorrilla, I. . 1 & Gonzalez-Pinto, A. M. 1, 4
1 University Hospital of Alava-Santiago, CIBERSAM, Vitoria, Spain
2 University of Basque Country, San Sebastián, Spain
3 National Distance Education University, CIBERSAM, Vitoria, Spain
4 University of Basque Country, Bilbao, Spain
Objectives
To compare the efficacy of an innovate telemedicine psyeducational treatment (TPT) based on a psychoeducational intervention (21 sessions) with support through telemedicine (12 videos) versus treatment as usual (TAU) based on regular psychiatry review (21 sessions) in a group of bipolar patients.
Methods
38 bipolar patients were randomly distributed in two groups. The psychoeducational therapy was the Colom and Vieta´s program. The telemedicine treatment was performed through the www.puedoser.es web platform provided by Astra Zeneca. In the web platform there are available forums, emails and virtual sessions as a reinforcement of psychoeducation. In order to assess the effectiveness of treatments, FAST scale was administered at baseline and 6 months after the intervention. Both methods were compared using comparative data analysis.
Results
Patients in TPT group had worse daily general functionality at baseline comparing with TAU group (t=-2.876; p=0.008). The most affected issues were: interpersonal cognitive (t=-2.611; p=0.014) and interpersonal area (t=-2.617; p=0.014). After intervention there is an improvement in the general FAST score (z=-2.74; p=0.006) of the TPT group at 6 months. This improvement occurred mainly in cognitive (z=-3.24; p<0.001), leisure (z=-1.85; p=0.065) and interpersonal area (z=-1.72; p=0.086). No significant improvements were observed in the TAU group.
Conclusion
The TPT support shows to be more effective than TAU in the improvement of general patient functioning of individual with bipolar disorder.