The Effect of Social Support Group on Functioning of Patients with Bipolar Disorder

Abstract

Purpose: 1) To compare the functioning of patients with bipolar disorder before and after receiving the social support group program. 2) To compare the functioning of patients with bipolar disorder after receiving the social support group program to patients who are received regular nursing care.

Design: Quasi-experimental research

Methods: The samples were 40 patients with bipolar disorder who met the inclusion criteria and were the outpatients of Prasrimahabhodi Psychiatric Hospital. The patients were matched pair and randomly assigned to the experimental group, consisting of 20 subjects while the control group of 20 subjects. The research instruments comprised: 1) social support group  2) The Functioning Assessment Short Test,  All instruments had been validated the content from five experts. The validity of Cronbach's alpha coefficient of instrument 2 was .87 respectively. Descriptive statistics and T-test was used to analyze data.

Findings: 1) Functioning of patients with bipolar disorder after receiving the social support program was higher than before receiving the program at a .05 level of significance and, 2) Functioning of patients with bipolar disorder receiving the social support program was higher than the patients who were received regular nursing care at a .05 level of significance

Conclusion: The result of these study findings of the present study indicated that the social support program can enhance the functioning of patients with bipolar disorder.