Hold on Tight: Coping Strategies of Persons With Bipolar Disorder and Their Partners

• Author: Leeat Granek,Yuly Bersudsky,Yamima Osher,Dor Danan
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12328
• Date: 01 December 2018
• Published date: 01 December 2018

L G, D D, Y B,  Y O Ben Gurion University of

the Negev

Hold on Tight: Coping Strategies of Persons

With Bipolar Disorder and Their Partners

Objective: To explore coping strategies for per-

sons with bipolar affective disorder and their

partners.

Background: Bipolar disorder poses interper-

sonal and practical challenges for patients and

their partners. Although the divorce rate is high

among persons with bipolar disorder, few stud-

ies have examined how these people and their

partners cope with the condition.

Method: 11 persons with bipolar affective dis-

order and 10 partners of people with bipolar

affective disorder were interviewed separately

about coping. Data were analyzed using the

grounded theory method.

Results: Both patients and partners reported

that coping strategies included professional

help, social support, and emotional, instrumen-

tal, and religious coping strategies.

Conclusions: Personswith bipolar disorder and

their partners draw on similar coping strategies,

but the former draw more on social support and

instrumental coping strategies, and their part-

ners draw on emotional coping strategies. Both

members of the couple are dependent on the

use of professional support—psychiatric, psy-

chological, and psychosocial—when it is readily

available and easily accessible, and this was a

key aspect of coping with the disorder.

Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences,

Ben Gurion University of the Negev,PO Box 653, 8410501,

Beer Sheva, Israel (leeatg@gmail.com).

Key Words: bipolar disorder, caregiving, coping, couples,

families, qualitative.

Implications: Clinical interventions should

focus on providing support for partners, who

are integral to the health and well-being of per-

sons with bipolar disorder and who experience

substantial strain associated with their caregiv-

ing duties. Focusing on strategies to strengthen

the spousal relationship is an essential aspect

of care.

Bipolar affective disorder (BD) is a chronic psy-

chiatric condition that aficts 2% to 3% of the

population (Merikangas et al., 2011). The con-

dition consists of extreme moods states—manic

and depressed—which may last anywhere from

a few days to months. These mood states are

usually interspersed with periods of normal

(euthymic) mood and functioning (Miklowitz,

2010). In a previous work (Granek, Danan,

Bersudsky, & Osher, 2016), we presented the

results of a qualitative study that used the

grounded theory method to understand the

experience of persons with bipolar disorder

(PWBD) and their partners, within the context

of the marital relationship. In the present arti-

cle, we report on the various coping strategies

PWBD and their partners use to deal with the

day-to-day stresses and anxieties inherent to

living with BD.

Quantitative research on BD has indicated

that the risk of suicide is relatively high among

PWBD—estimated to be close to 20% (Tondo,

Isacsson, & Baldessarini, 2003)—and that

divorce and separation are 2 to 3 times more

likely than in the general U.S. population

(Kogan et al., 2004; Suppes et al., 2001). The

Family Relations 67 (December 2018): 589–599 589

DOI:10.1111/fare.12328