scholarly journals The Impact of Bipolar Disorder on Couple Functioning: Implications for Care and Treatment. A Systematic Review

Medicina ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (8) ◽  
pp. 771
Author(s):  
Jean-Michel Azorin ◽  
Antoine Lefrere ◽  
Raoul Belzeaux

If there is an abundant literature on the impact of bipolar illness on the family and/or caregivers of patients, few studies have addressed its impact on marital relationship and couple functioning. Uncovering information relating specifically to this topic may be particularly relevant due to the unusually high divorce rate among individuals with bipolar disorder. We therefore conducted a systematic literature search to evaluate the existing data on bipolar disorder and marital issues, with a special focus on the help and support that can be provided by mental health professionals in this regard. We identified quantitative studies with pre-defined outcomes as well as qualitative investigations trying to understand the experiences of partners. A total of 27 articles were included in the review. The literature was found to capture the impact of bipolar disorder on partners as well as on the marital relationship itself or the children. Bipolar illness has a negative impact on the lives of partners including self-sacrifice, caregiver burden, emotional impact, and health problems. This negative impact can be aggravated by a lack of care and a lack of information from health personnel. The negative impact on the relationship includes volatility in the relationship, stigmatization, dissatisfaction with sexual life, and lower rates of childbearing. Negative impacts are likely to favor disease relapses for the patient. Children may also be negatively impacted. However, the illness may sometimes have positive impacts such as personal evolution, strengthening relationship, or new hope and perspectives. Based on these findings, the interventions of mental health professionals should be aimed at minimizing the negative impacts while favoring the positive ones.

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rabie KARROURI ◽  
Zakaria HAMMANI ◽  
Yassine OTHEMAN

People with bipolar disorder are at high risk of serious complications during the COVID-19 pandemic. Limited access to care, lifestyle, health condition and other clinical characteristics increase the risk of contracting the new coronavirus disease, with more risk of developing severe forms, as well as that of bipolar relapse. Here, we will describe some problematic situations that may be encountered by bipolar patients during this pandemic period, and the measures that can be taken to reduce the impact of such problems on bipolar disorder course. Maintaining a daily schedule with relaxing and pleasing activities, getting enough sleep, keeping contact with mental health professionals and continuing prescribed medication, are important measures to prevent relapse. Family and friends, have also a key role in accompanying and supporting patients in these crisis time.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S691-S691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew C Fullen ◽  
Jonathan Wiley ◽  
Amy Morgan ◽  
Gerard Lawson ◽  
Jyotsana Sharma

Abstract Medicare is the primary insurance provider for approximately 59 million Americans, and the number of beneficiaries is expected to surpass 80 million by 2030. Currently, Medicare regulations allow psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical social workers, and psychiatric nurses to provide mental health services. These providers were last updated in 1989 with passage of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989. Since that time, the mental health marketplace has changed dramatically, and Medicare beneficiaries are unable to access care from approximately 200,000 graduate-level mental health professionals with similar training to eligible Medicare providers. There is evidence that this Medicare mental health coverage gap (MMHCG) impacts both providers and beneficiaries. For example, some beneficiaries may begin treatment only to have services interrupted, or stopped altogether, once the provider is no longer able to be reimbursed by Medicare. We surveyed 6,550 members of the American Counseling Association, including 3,815 who identified themselves as practicing counselors. These individuals work in diverse contexts (e.g., community mental health agencies, private practice, and integrated care settings). Survey results indicated that a significant number of practicing counselors turn away or refer Medicare beneficiaries who seek mental health care due to the MMHCG. In-depth interviews were also completed with eight licensed mental health professionals who detailed the challenges they and their clients experienced. Participants perceived a discrepancy between Medicare’s intended aims to promote health and provider restrictions that were confusing and frustrating to navigate. Participants concluded that the MMHCG has a negative impact on older adult clients.


Author(s):  
Jasmeet Singh ◽  
Maria Karanika-Murray ◽  
Thom Baguley ◽  
John Hudson

Psychosocial hazards in mental healthcare contribute to the development of compassion fatigue in mental health professionals. Compassion fatigue has a negative impact on the mental health and wellbeing of professionals that can impair the quality of services provided to clients. The majority of research on compassion fatigue has focused on individual-level variables such as gender, history of trauma and age, among others. It is also imperative to understand the role played by alterable work-related characteristics in contributing to the development of compassion fatigue in order to attenuate its impact on mental health professionals and their clients. The present review examined articles exploring work-related factors associated with compassion fatigue. Fifteen quantitative studies were included and their quality was assessed using a checklist. An inductive content-analysis approach was adopted to synthesise the themes emerging from the data. The results suggested a theoretical model consistent with the Job Demands-Resources model, wherein job demands (such as workplace trauma, workload and therapeutic settings) are associated with compassion fatigue, and job resources (such as supervisors’, coworkers’ and organisational support) mitigate the impact of job demands. In addition to person-oriented factors, work-related factors are critical for the prevention of compassion fatigue.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Babak Hemmatian ◽  
Sze Yu Yu Chan ◽  
Steven A. Sloman

A label’s entrenchment, its degree of use by members of a community, affects its perceived explanatory value even if the label provides no substantive information (Hemmatian & Sloman, 2018). In three experiments, we show that laypersons and mental health professionals see entrenched psychiatric and non-psychiatric diagnostic labels as better explanations than non-entrenched labels even if they are circular. Using scenarios involving experts who discuss unfamiliar diagnostic categories, we show that this preference is not due to violations of conversational norms, lack of reflectiveness or attentiveness, and the characters’ familiarity or unfamiliarity with the label. In Experiment 1, whether a label provided novel symptom information or not had no impact on lay responses, while its entrenchment enhanced ratings of explanation quality. The effect persisted in Experiment 2 for causally incoherent categories and regardless of direct provision of mechanistic information. The effect of entrenchment was partly related to induced causal beliefs about the category, even when participants were informed there is no causal relation. Most participants in both experiments did not report any effect of entrenchment and the effect was present for those who did not. In Experiment 3, mental health professionals showed the effect using diagnoses that were mere shorthands for symptoms, despite a tendency to rate all explanations as unsatisfactory. The data suggest that bringing experts’ attention to the manipulation eliminates the effect. We discuss practical implications for mental health disciplines and potential ways to mitigate the impact of entrenchment.


2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. s843-s843
Author(s):  
K. Vaiphei ◽  
P. Sreedaran ◽  
V. Sathyanarayanan

AimsStudies investigating attitudes of people with mental illness are scarce. The aim of the present study was to investigate person living with psychosis on their attitudes and perception towards the mental health professionals in contact with mental health services.MethodsAn in-depth interview was used to explore their lived experiences and attitude towards mental health professionals.ResultsBoth negative and positive attitudes were prevalent among the patients. Most negative attitudes concerned on not giving time, the MHPs are most interested in financial gains. They felt attitude changes according to diagnosis, psychosis perceived as diagnosis with violence; they are more interested in protecting themselves, perception that treating symptoms and not cause of illness. On the contrary, they felt positive on the relationship and time given to them.Discussion and conclusions The PLWI's attitude to MHPs could be a product of the type of admission (forced upon), symptoms related or on the type of service settings. The present study is purely qualitative, single settings, could not be generalised. However it points on the need for sensitization of MHPs and relationship building oriented intervention.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.


1984 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 475-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth V. Swenson ◽  
Ruth Ragucci

Research and theoretical notions on the relationship between mental health and androgyny have yielded contradictory statements. In the present study 42 practicing psychotherapists were asked to rate the mentally healthy person (sex unspecified), man, and woman on the Bem Sex-role Inventory. Analysis showed that masculine was the preferred category for the person, with androgynous more often used to describe the man and undifferentiated, the woman. Male and female ratees differed significantly in masculinity and femininity in the expected direction with the person midway between. Sex-role stereotyping remains prevalent among mental health professionals.


Author(s):  
James R. Stefurak ◽  
Daniel W. Surry ◽  
Richard L. Hayes

As communication technology is increasingly applied to the training and supervision of mental health professionals, a more robust analysis of how such approaches fundamentally change the relationship between supervisor and supervisee and how these approaches both enhance and limit the outcomes of supervision is sorely needed. In this chapter clinical supervision is defined and discussed and the various technology platforms that have been used to conduct supervision at-a-distance are reviewed along with the supervision outcomes observed in the research literature with each method. The potential for technology to reduce geographic and financial barriers to the provision of quality supervision is discussed. However, the chapter also outlines the potential negative impacts technology might have to the supervisory relationship, the ethical dilemmas posed by technology-mediated supervision, and the ways in which technology-mediated supervision may place limits upon the elements of supervision that rely upon a constructivist epistemology.


Author(s):  
Ryan P. Kilmer ◽  
Virginia Gil-Rivas ◽  
Steven J. Hardy

This chapter seeks to help teachers and school mental health professionals understand the needs of students who have faced a disaster or terrorism and identify strategies for school-based responses. The chapter provides an overview of the effects of these events on school children and youths, including relevant developmental and cultural considerations, and the impact on the school setting. Then, the discussion emphasizes recommendations for, and possible responses by, teachers, school-based mental health professionals, and administrators. Indeed, just as these traumas can affect multiple levels of school children’s lives, the needed response of school-based professionals can be framed as multi-level, ranging from curricular modification to interventions specifically targeting youngsters’ socio-emotional needs. The sections that follow seek to inform and guide responses for school personnel and provide clear, “actionable” recommendations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 2011-2029 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Ivanova ◽  
Adela Grando ◽  
Anita Murcko ◽  
Michael Saks ◽  
Mary Jo Whitfield ◽  
...  

Integrated mental and physical care environments require data sharing, but little is known about health professionals’ perceptions of patient-controlled health data sharing. We describe mental health professionals’ views on patient-controlled data sharing using semi-structured interviews and a mixed-method analysis with thematic coding. Health information rights, specifically those of patients and health care professionals, emerged as a key theme. Behavioral health professionals identified patient motivations for non-sharing sensitive mental health records relating to substance use, emergency treatment, and serious mental illness (94%). We explore conflicts between professional need for timely access to health information and patient desire to withhold some data categories. Health professionals’ views on data sharing are integral to the redesign of health data sharing and informed consent. As well, they seek clarity about the impact of patient-controlled sharing on health professionals’ roles and scope of practice.


2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 616-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Bonnet ◽  
Nicola Moran

Abstract The number of people detained under the 1983 Mental Health Act has risen significantly in recent years and has recently been the subject of an independent review. Most existing research into the rise in detentions has tended to prioritise the perspectives of psychiatrists and failed to consider the views of Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs), usually social workers, who ultimately determine whether detention is appropriate. This mixed-methods study focused on AMHPs’ views on the reasons behind the rise in detentions and potential solutions. It included a national online survey of AMHPs (n = 160) and semi-structured interviews with six AMHPs within a Community Mental Health Team in England. AMHPs reported that demand for mental health services vastly exceeded supply and, due to inadequate resources, more people were being detained in hospital. AMHPs argued that greater investment in preventative mental health services and ‘low intensity’ support would help to mitigate the impact of social risk factors on mental health; and greater investment in crisis services, including non-medical alternatives to hospital, was required. Such investment at either end of the spectrum was expected to be more effective than changes to the law and lead to better outcomes for mental health service users.


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