Probing the impact of psychoanalytic therapy for bipolar disorders: A scoping review

No systematic review has been conducted to provide an overview of the effectiveness of psychoanalysis for treatment outcomes in bipolar depression and mania. The present study undertakes a scoping review of the effectiveness of psychoanalysis for bipolar disorder (BD), provides a summary of the evidence base, and identifies issues for future research in this area. A thorough search of journal articles in MEDLINE, PEP-Web, PsycINFO, Scopus, and the Web of Science was carried out to obtain available studies on psychoanalytic treatment for BD published from 1990 to 2021. We searched for either quantitative or single-case studies. Twenty-six single-case reports from 21 articles and no quantitative studies met the inclusion criteria. A qualitative analysis suggests efficacy and cost-effectiveness but thus far there is no scientific evidence in support of psychoanalysis. Although these pilot findings suggest that psychoanalysis may impact symptoms and global functioning in individuals with BD, the underlying evidence is poor and should be confirmed by experimental studies.