Bipolar Disorder: The Importance of Person-Centered Care

In Part 2 of this video, Psych Congress Steering Committee Member, Craig Chepke, MD, FAPA, adjunct associate professor of psychiatry, Atrium Health, adjunct assistant professor of psychiatry, UNC School of Medicine, and medical director, Excel Psychiatric Associates, Huntersville, NC, shares his key insights and takeaways from the recent Harris Poll survey conducted on behalf of Alkermes and the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA), which examined the burden on people living with bipolar I disorder, especially as it relates to the importance of person-centered care.

In Part 1, Dr Chepke addressed important topics of isolation, medication trial and error, side effects, challenges, and stigma.

Read the transcript:

Dr. Craig Chepke:  To wrap up what we've talked about from the survey results, I'd say my big takeaway is, it highlights once again the need for person-centered care. There is no one-size-fits-all treatment for people with bipolar I disorder, or any psychiatric disorder, for that matter.

These survey results highlight just how difficult it can be to find the right medication for someone with bipolar I disorder.

That occurs both in terms of the symptom reduction, which leads to us wanting to maximize the efficacy that we get out of our medications, but also looking at safety and tolerability because the survey also highlighted a number of different adverse reactions that were bothersome to people who were receiving them.

I wish I could tell you that there was a particular medication or two medications that is the best bet to always use in bipolar I disorder.

We have to base it on that person's specific symptomatology, their specific preferences, which we highlight as part of shared decision making, making sure that we are taking the patient's preferences, goals, and beliefs into account when we're selecting treatments and that we mutually come to a decision that is going to be more likely, therefore, to hopefully result in better adherence.

Whenever someone has a hand in the solution themselves, I believe that they're going to be more likely to stick with that in going forward and also making sure that we have established a relationship of good communication and give‑and‑take exchange question asking and answering with our patients.

We want to make sure that our patients know, if they do experience an adverse reaction from medication, that we're there to help them with it. That may look like using another medication to alleviate the adverse reactions of that medication, switching the medication to something that is less likely to cause an adverse reaction, or whatever it might be.

That we're there for them to get over this problem and to make sure that they do get to a place where they feel that they are well treated in all regards, combining both efficacy and tolerability with the medications.