(PS12-B41) Mood Lifters for Self-reported Bipolar Disorder: A Pilot Trial

Individuals with bipolar disorder are more likely to experience poor mental health outcomes, making it crucial to develop and implement effective interventions for the improvement of overall wellbeing within this population (Grande et al., 2016). This current study sought to examine the effectiveness of Mood Lifters (Votta & Deldin, 2022) for those who self-reported having a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Mood Lifters is a 15-week, peer-led, group-format program that provides dimensional treatment at low cost to participants. The program is based in the biopsychosocial framework (Engel, 1981) and uses components primarily from CBT, DBT, ACT, positive psychology, and physical health research within the presented modules (Pokowitz & Prakash, under review). Individuals who self-reported a diagnosis of bipolar disorder completed surveys measuring psychological functioning at the beginning and end of their Mood Lifters group. One-way repeated measures ANOVAs were conducted to examine the impact of the intervention on symptoms of depression, anxiety, social functioning, perceived stress, and flourishing. Analyses found that individuals experienced significant improvements in all five areas, exhibiting not only a decrease in symptoms of psychopathology (p’s < 0.01) but also significant improvements in wellbeing (p’s < 0.05). These preliminary pilot findings led the authors to develop a Mood Lifters adaptation specifically for individuals with bipolar disorder, which should be evaluated in a randomized control trial.