Transdiagnostic treatment of bipolar disorder and comorbid anxiety with the unified protocol: a clinical replication series.
One CBT protocol eased both mood and anxiety for adults living with bipolar plus an anxiety disorder.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Syriopoulou-Delli et al. (2012) tested the Unified Protocol (UP) on three adults who had both bipolar disorder and an anxiety disorder.
UP is one CBT package that works for many emotional disorders. Each adult got weekly one-on-one UP sessions.
What they found
All three people had fewer mood swings and less anxiety after treatment.
The gains were still there three months later.
How this fits with other research
Cox et al. (2015) ran UP in groups of mixed-diagnosis adults and saw the same good results. This backs up UP’s core skills.
González-Robles et al. (2019) added a short positive-psychology module to transdiagnostic CBT. They got bigger jumps in happy mood while still cutting anxiety and depression. This shows UP can be boosted even more.
Older studies like Moxley (1989) and Frame et al. (1984) used breathing or self-exposure for agoraphobia and also saw lasting gains. UP gives a broader CBT frame that may help clients who have more than one diagnosis.
Why it matters
If you serve adults with both bipolar and anxiety, UP offers one clear manual you can start tomorrow. You do not need separate plans for each label. Track mood and anxiety each session; you should see both drop within a few weeks.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic, debilitating disorder with recurrent manic and depressive episodes. More than 75% of bipolar patients have a current or lifetime diagnosis of a comorbid anxiety disorder. Comorbid anxiety in BD is associated with greater illness severity, greater functional impairment, and poorer illness-related outcomes. Effectively treating comorbid anxiety in individuals with BD has been recognized as one of the biggest unmet needs in the field of BD. Recently, the Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders (UP) was developed to be applicable to the full range of anxiety and mood disorders, based on converging evidence from genetics, cognitive and affective neuroscience, and behavioral research suggesting common, core emotion-related pathology. Here, the authors present a preliminary evaluation of the efficacy of the UP for the treatment of BD with comorbid anxiety, in a clinical replication series consisting of three cases.
Behavior modification, 2012 · doi:10.1177/0145445512451272