Follow-up of one-year burden of caregivers of bipolar patients after psychotherapy of patients

People with bipolar disorder )PWBD) impose a lot of burden on their caregivers, which can have unpleasant consequences for caregivers. The aim of this study was to follow up the one-year burden of caregivers of PWBD after psychotherapy of these patients. This cross-sectional study was performed as a continuation of a clinical trial in caregivers of PWBD. In the trial study, 30 male PWBD participated in two groups of intervention (n = 15) and control (n = 15) randomly from Isfahan Psychiatric Hospital. The intervention group underwent Supportive-Expressive Dynamic Psychotherapy and followed by three and six months. At the beginning of the trial, after its completion and one year later, the burden of bipolar caregivers was compared between the intervention and control groups (caregivers did not receive any intervention). Data collection was performed using Zarit Caregiver Burden Interview (1980). Data analysis was performed in SPSS-24 statistical software using repeated measures ANOVA test. The results of intergroup differences showed that between the caregivers of the intervention and control groups in the subscales of individual burnout (F=6.368; P=0.008), emotional (F=7.115; P=0.014), and score Total (F=7.420; P=0.012) there is a significant difference and 27%, 24% and 25% of the changes are due to group membership, respectively; But no significant difference was observed in the subscales of social and economic burnout (p <0.05). Overall, it can be concluded that psychotherapy of PWBD can play an effective role in reducing the burden of their caregivers in the long term, but requires comprehensive and ongoing interventions.