The Effectiveness of Psychodrama on Emotional Rehabilitation of Patients with Bipolar I Disorder

Aim and Background: The main component of nonverbal communication is recognition of face expressions of emotions, and defect in this ability is associated with weakness in social communication. Bipolar disorder is a kind of disorder that is characterized by this defect. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the effect of psychodrama on emotional rehabilitation of patients with bipolar disorder. Methods and Materials: This experimental study was carried out through pre- and post-test by control group. Using purposeful sampling method, 20 subjects were selected who were diagnosed with bipolar disorder by the psychiatrist according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5th Edition (DSM-5). Then, subjects were randomly assigned to two groups; experimental and control. The experimental group received 8 sessions of psychodrama treatment. The scores of the emotional rehabilitation questionnaire of both groups were collected before and after the intervention and in the follow-up period of 6 months, and then were analyzed by repeated measures of analysis of variance (ANOVA). Findings: A significant increase in the scores of post-test and follow-up in comparison with that of pre-test in experimental group (F(2,36) = 49.87, P < 0.001, h2 = 0.73). Also, the between-group results showed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups (F(1,18) = 5.32, P < 0.050, h2 = 0.58). It seems that psychodrama is effective in increasing the emotional rehabilitation of patients with bipolar disorder; so, it is recommended as an effective treatment for these patients