Effect of Anger Management Education on Aggression in Bipolar Disorder Hospitalized Patients: A Pilot Study

Aggression is one of the symptoms of bipolar disorder. This expression can be associated with negative personal and social effects This study aimed to determine the effect of anger management education on aggression in bipolar disorder. This semi-experimental study with a repeated measures design was conducted in Hamadan, Iran, 2018. Fifty-two bipolar type-1 disorder patients were randomly selected from the Psychiatric Ward of Farshian Hospital through the convenience sampling method. The anger management education intervention included four sessions. Also, the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 (STAXI-2) was completed by the subjects before, immediately, and two weeks after the educational intervention. Data analysis was performed in SPSS16, using Mauchly’s sphericity test and the least significant difference. The mean aggression score was 61.38±11.59 before the intervention, which reduced to 27.18±8.61 and 18.86±6.45 immediately and two weeks after the intervention, respectively. The repeated measures test showed that the decreasing trend of scores was statistically significant (P<0.001). Moreover, pairwise comparison of study stages demonstrated a significant difference between the first and second stages (P<0.001) and the second and third stages (P<0.001). Anger management education reduced the level of aggression in bipolar type-1 disorder. Therefore, it can be incorporated into nursing care programs