The effect of social cognition and interaction therapy on improving occupational functionality in bipolar disorder

Bipolar Disorder (BD) can have negative influences on some other areas and cognitive processes that are seen as a chronic mental health problem. On the other hand, the development of professional functionality, which is one of the main functional areas, gains importance about patient's financial independence, as well as managing emotions, organizing interpersonal relationships and coping with stigmatization which are the treatment goals. The main purpose of this research is the occupational improvement of BD patients through Social Cognition and Interaction Therapy (SBET). The universe of this study, which was designed as a pretest-posttest experimental study with a random control group, consists of patients with a diagnosis of BD, whose treatment and follow-up continues in the Mood Unit of the Department of İ.U. Mental Health and Diseases of Istanbul Medical Faculty. On the other hand, sample of the study consisted of 28 individuals with BD-I diagnosis, including the experimental (n1=12) and control (n2=16) groups selected from the universe according to certain criteria. The experimental group participated in the SBET for 8 weeks in addition to the standard treatment (drug therapy and psychiatric interview), and no therapy was applied to the control group. In the evaluation of the data, Participant Information Form, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS), Eyes Test (ET), Metacognition Scale (MCI), Internalized Stigma in Mental Illnesses (ISMI) and Brief Functionality Assessment Scale (BFADS) used. The obtained data were analyzed on the computer in the SPSS 21 program, demographic data were shown with frequency, percentages and arithmetic mean, which are among the descriptive statistics methods, and the number of groups was taken into consideration in the use of the analysis in the study. İntergroup and intragroup comparisons were evaluated using the Mann-Whitney U Test, Wilcoxon Test and Kruskal-Wallis One-Way Analysis of Variance because of the n <.05. The quantitative analysis focused on the effects of the application on social cognition, professional functionality and stigmatization. The findings show that the 8-week SBET group process, administered in two sessions each week, can provide significant differences on social cognition and occupational functioning in patients, but can't provide a significant difference on stigmatization. It is remarkable that the SBET group application has improved the occupational functionality of patients with bipolar disorder at the end of the study. All findings were discussed within the framework of the relevant literature and suggestions were made for future research.