Psychological therapy for Bipolar mood instability: the ThrIVe-B trial

A substantial proportion of people with Bipolar Spectrum Disorders experience ongoing, frequent fluctuations in mood across days and weeks (Bipolar Mood Instability: BPMI). This may be within the experience of Cyclothymic Disorder, or in addition to full episodes of depression or mania / hypomania in people with a diagnosis of Bipolar I or II Disorder.

In this talk I will describe the treatment gap that exists in the literature and in practice for this population, and introduce a psychological approach, informed by Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), that seeks to help people manage their mood instability. I will report the results of two feasibility trials of the approach (the ThrIVe-B programme) and discuss implications for future development of the intervention, as well as clinical insights gained from the work.