ABSTRACT
Background
Research demonstrates the effectiveness of evidence-based psychological treatment adjunctive to pharmacotherapy for reducing mood symptoms in bipolar disorder. However, access to these treatments is limited, and innovative strategies are needed to ensure that more patients with bipolar disorder receive the gold-standard treatments that may help them achieve wellness. “Stepped care” models of psychological service delivery represent one potential solution to this problem of treatment access. Under a stepped care model, patients are assigned the minimum necessary psychological treatment for symptom improvement. This typically means that patients who are experiencing more symptoms are assigned to a treatment of greater intensity (e.g., weekly individual therapy) whereas patients who are experiencing fewer symptoms are assigned to a treatment of relatively lesser intensity (e.g., biweekly group therapy). Stepped care models are dynamic, meaning that the level of treatment can be modified depending on the patient’s response. Stepped care models have been explored in other clinical populations but require further exploration in bipolar disorder.
Methods
Members of the Psychological Interventions Task Force for the International Society of Bipolar Disorders conducted a narrative review of stepped care models and their application to bipolar disorder.
Results
We found evidence that stepped care models are useful approaches to delivering psychosocial treatments for bipolar disorder. We discuss several contextual factors in executing stepped care models in this population (i.e., cultural and pediatric applications), as well as share an example of a stepped care model—Focused Integrated Team-based Treatment for Bipolar Disorder (FITT-BD)—that is currently being evaluated in an academic medical center.
Conclusion
Further research is warranted to develop and assess robust stepped care models to determine whether they can improve access to treatment of bipolar disorder while not sacrificing outcomes.