TREATMENT OF PATIENTS WITH CO-OCCURRING SUBSTANCE USE DISORDER AND BIPOLAR DISORDER: A NEW APPROACH

Presented by Professor Roger Weiss MD

For timing: see programme on home page

Bipolar disorder is the psychiatric disorder associated with the greatest risk of a co-occurring substance use disorder - but, despite the common co-occurrence of these two disorders, there has been little research focusing on treatments specifically for patients with both of these.

Integrated Group Therapy is a group treatment that has been designed and tested in three separate studies with this patient population.

This UKESAD presentation will discuss reasons for the high rate of co-occurrence of these two disorders and will discuss how Integrated Group Therapy is conducted, and how it differs from standard group substance abuse counseling. 

Results of research on Integrated Group Therapy will be reviewed, demonstrating that this treatment can produce better results than standard group counseling for this population.