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Treatment Adherence Enhancement in Bipolar Disorder

Not Applicable
Completed
Conditions
Treatment Noncompliance
Bipolar Disorder
Interventions
Behavioral: Customized Adherence Enhancement (CAE)
Behavioral: broadly-directed, non-individualized education (EDU)
Registration Number
NCT01542008
Lead Sponsor
Case Western Reserve University
Brief Summary

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a serious and chronic mental illness that is associated with substantial impairment in quality of life and functional outcomes, high rates of suicide, and high financial costs. In spite of a proliferation of treatments for BD, nearly half of individuals with BD do not benefit from pharmacotherapy because of sub-optimal medication treatment adherence. Non-adherence with BD medication treatment dramatically worsens outcomes. Reasons for non-adherence among individuals with BD are multi-dimensional, and it has been suggested that adherence enhancement might work best if the intervention specifically addresses factors that are important and modifiable for a specific individual. In spite of the enormity of the problem, the literature on interventions to improve treatment adherence is surprisingly limited. There is an urgent need for interventions to enhance treatment adherence among BD patients that: 1) are at high risk for future treatment non-adherence; 2) may not have access to or interest in long-term, high-intensity, and specialized care; and 3) are flexible and patient-focused taking into account reasons for non-adherence for a specific individual.

The proposed study is a first-ever RCT focused specifically on BD treatment adherence enhancement, and will test whether a customized adherence enhancement (CAE) psychosocial intervention improves adherence and mental health outcomes compared to broadly-directed, non-individualized education (EDU). The proposed project has the potential to greatly advance the care of BD patients who are at greatest risk for poor health outcomes, with findings expected to be generalizable across a variety of treatment settings.

Hypothesis 1: CAE will be associated with greater improvement in treatment adherence compared to broadly-directed, non-individualized BD education (EDU).

Hypothesis 2: CAE will be associated with improved BD symptoms compared to EDU.

Detailed Description

Not available

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
COMPLETED
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
184
Inclusion Criteria
  • Subjects must have type I or type II Bipolar Disorder (BD) as confirmed by the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders Patient Version (SCID-P)
  • Have had BD for at least two years duration
  • Have received treatment with at least one evidence-based medication to stabilize mood for at least six months (lithium, anticonvulsant, or antipsychotic mood stabilizer)
  • Either 20% or more non-adherent with current BD medication treatment (i.e. lithium, anticonvulsant, or antipsychotic mood stabilizer)
Exclusion Criteria
  • Unable or unwilling to participate in psychiatric interviews. This will include individuals, who may be too psychotic to participate in interviews/rating scales
  • Unable or unwilling to give written, informed consent to study participation
  • Individuals at high risk for suicide who can not be safely managed in their current treatment setting

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
Customized Adherence Enhancement (CAE)Customized Adherence Enhancement (CAE)This arm will receive the CAE intervention.
broad non-individualized education (EDU)broadly-directed, non-individualized education (EDU)This arm will receive the EDU intervention.
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Change from baseline in treatment adherence as measured by special pill cap counter at 24 weeksBaseline and 24 weeks

A special pill cap will record the time/date of bottle opening. The cap will be used for the medication that the patient takes the most frequently (in the case of multiple BD medications taken at same frequency, the medication that was started most recently will be selected). A dose will be counted as "taken" if the bottle is opened within two hours of the prescribed time. A percent of doses taken (treatment adherence) will be calculated by dividing the number of times the bottle is opened by the number of times it should have been opened as per the prescription.

Change from baseline in the Tablet Routine Questionaire (TRQ) "past month" item at 24 weeksBaseline and 24 weeks

The TRQ "past month" item is a subject report of the percentage of prescribed medications not taken within the past month.

Change from baseline in the Tablet Routine Questionaire (TRQ) "past week" item at 24 weeksBaseline and 24 weeks

The TRQ "past week" item is a subject report of the percentage of prescribed medications not taken within the past week.

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Change from baseline in Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) at 24 weeksbaseline and 24 weeks
Change from baseline in Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) at 24 weeksbaseline and 24 weeks
Change from baseline in Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) at 24 weeksbaseline and 24 weeks
Change from baseline in the Drug and Alcohol portion of the Addiction Severity Index (ASI) at 24 weeksbaseline and 24 weeks
Change from baseline in Brief Psychiatry Symptom Scale (BPRS) at 24 weeksbaseline and 24 weeks
Change from baseline in General Self Efficacy Scale at 24 weeksbaseline and 24 weeks
Change from baseline in Drug Attitudes Inventory (DAI) at 24 weeksbaseline and 24 weeks
Change from baseline in Clinical Global Impression, Bipolar Version (CGI-BP) at 24 weeksbaseline and 24 weeks
Change from baseline in Stigma for Mental Illness Scale at 24 weeksbaseline and 24 weeks
Change from baseline in Treatment alliance (Trust in Providers scale) at 24 weeksbaseline and 24 weeks

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

University Hospitals Case Medical Center

🇺🇸

Cleveland, Ohio, United States

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