Goal

The objective of the eighth session is to give the group updated information on the pharmacological treatment of the manic and hypomanic phases in order to improve patient adherence in these phases, since it is usually deficient.

Procedure

• As usual, we will start the group with a brief informal conversation, after which we will ask (two) volunteers to present a life chart.

• Next, we will ask our patients about the use of various antimanic drugs (“How many of you had to take olanzapine?” “How many have taken risperidone?” etc.), on their indication (“Do you remember at what point they were prescribed to you?”“Were you in a manic or depressed phase?”) and about adherence (“How many of you stopped taking it without the physician telling you to?”). We can make a list of usage frequencies on the blackboard, as we did in the session on mood stabilizers.

• At this point, the patients probably have already introduced the topic of antimanic drugs and their advantages and inconvenience, and we can start presenting all material. From time to time, we will interrupt our explanation to ask the patients about the side effects of a certain drug, if they had taken it, and thus make our presentation more interactive.

• We switch to a phase of questions and discussion and, after delivering the material and homework, we close the session.