Background:
In unipolar, and bipolar affective disorders, there is a high risk of relapse that increases as the number of episodes increases. Naturalistic follow-up studies suggest that the progressive development of the diseases is not prevented with the present treatment modalities. It is not known whether centralised and specialised secondary care intervention initiated early after the onset of the diseases can prevent the progression and thereby improve the prognosis.
Methods:
Two randomised clinical multi-centre trials comparing a centralised and specialised outpatient intervention program consisting of combined pharmacological and psychological intervention with standard decentralised psychiatric treatment. Patients discharged from their first, second, or third hospitalisation due to a manic episode or bipolar disorder (trial 1) or to a single depressive episode or recurrent depressive disorder (trial 2) were randomised. Central randomisations for both trials were stratified for the number of hospitalisations and treatment centre. The primary outcome measure for the two trials is time to re-hospitalisation with an affective episode.DiscussionThese trials are the first to evaluate the effect of a centralised and specialised intervention in patients with early severe affective disorders. The trials used a pragmatic design comparing a specialised mood disorder clinic intervention with decentralised, non-specialised standard psychiatric treatment.Trial Registration: The trials are registered with the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trials Registry, ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT00253071.