Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatr. Nov 9, 2018; 8(5): 114-124
Published online Nov 9, 2018. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v8.i5.114
Treatment alliance and adherence in bipolar disorder
Subho Chakrabarti
Subho Chakrabarti, Department of Psychiatry, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh 160012, India
Author contributions: Chakrabarti S conceived the study and drafted the manuscript and approved the final version of the article.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author has no conflict of interest to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Subho Chakrabarti, MD, Professor, Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh 160012, India. subhochd@yahoo.com
Telephone: +91-172-2756808 Fax: +91-172-2744401
Received: July 9, 2018
Peer-review started: July 10, 2018
First decision: August 24, 2018
Revised: October 7, 2018
Accepted: October 23, 2018
Article in press: October 23, 2018
Published online: November 9, 2018
Processing time: 124 Days and 13.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: A collaborative treatment alliance is central to tackling the ubiquitous problem of non-adherence in bipolar disorder (BD). Studies examining the link between alliance and adherence in BD have shown that an effective alliance positively impacts adherence. However, the existing literature is relatively limited, often of variable quality, and has not been able to clearly delineate the mediators of the alliance-adherence connection. Nevertheless, the key elements of productive alliances in BD which could positively influence treatment-adherence are reasonably clear. They can be readily implemented in clinical practice to enhance adherence in BD, till future research further clarifies the alliance-adherence association.