Goal

The goal of Session 4 is to have patients come into contact for the first time with what a manic or hypomanic episode is. We have grouped mania and hypomania into the same session because of their clinical similarities. Ideally, we should also have included mixed episodes here, because from a clinical standpoint and – most of all – a therapeutic and psycho-social impact standpoint, mixed phases resemble mania more than they do depression. Mixed episodes were included in Session 5 (see p. 85) due to time constraints and to the fact that it does not look sensible to try to explain mixed phases before the patient has heard about both mania and depression. The purpose of Session 4 is not to teach patients how to detect a manic or hypomanic episode in time, but rather it simply tries to show them what a hypomanic or manic episode is. To do this, it is important in this session that we go directly to explaining the possible symptoms, without getting sidetracked into talking about the signs of relapse.

Procedure

• As always, we will begin the session informally and open the group up to questions about last session.

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