Follow-up of Symptoms of Patients with Type 1 Bipolar Disorder After Home Nursing Care: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Background: Due to the recurrent nature of type 1 bipolar disorder, evaluating the disease symptoms and a long-term follow-up of the disease after discharge is very important. Objectives: This study evaluated the six-month follow-up of the symptoms of patients with type 1 bipolar disorder after the implementation of the home nursing care program. Methods: This study is part of a clinical trial designed and conducted in two phases. In the first phase, an intervention was conducted to assess the effect of home nursing care on the severity of symptoms of type 1 bipolar patients, and in the second phase, the patients were followed up over 6 months. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire and young scale and were analyzed by SPSS 24 software with repeated-measures analysis of variance, Mann-Whitney U, and Fisher’s tests at the significance level of < 0.05. Results: The severity of symptoms was significantly decreased in the experimental group after the intervention. Until the second month of follow-up, almost the same severity scores were reported, but from the third month, an increase was observed in the severity of symptoms (P < 0.001). Conclusions: A continuous care program for a specific period can maintain the effect of the intervention on reducing the severity of symptoms in type 1 bipolar patients. A home nursing care program is effective in reducing the severity of symptoms until four months after the intervention. This care program should be repeated every four months to maintain the effectiveness of the intervention and reduce the severity of the symptoms of the disease.