Goal

Many bipolar patients seek the help of alternative treatments (homeopathy, naturopathy, esoteric therapies, etc.) and from parascientific professionals (clairvoyant, spiritual advisors, or healers), in most cases ignoring the differences between the medical treatment of the disorder and the alternative treatments as to evidence and efficacy. The objective of this session is to explain to our patients what this difference is, what steps are followed in a treatment before its approval and why certain supposed alternative therapies do not work in the case of bipolar patients.

Procedure

• If there are still patients who volunteer to present their life chart, we will dedicate the first 20–30 min to a couple of cases.

• Unlike the previous sessions, in Session 12 we will not start our presentation with an open question to the patients. As most of the general population does not know how the scientific method works and what a clinical study is, we will start by explaining these two issues, and this will allow us to make constant references to the scientific or non-scientific character of a certain treatment during the debate, after presenting the material of the session, without having to interrupt ourselves in order to clarify these terms to our patients.

• Based on the material of the assignments, we will facilitate the discussion between patients about the role of alternative therapies in bipolar disorders.

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