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

Background: Aggression is one of the symptoms of bipolar disorder. This expression can be associated with negative personal and social effects. Objective: This study aimed to determine the effect of anger management education on aggression in bipolar disorder. Methods: 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. Results: 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). Conclusion: Anger management education reduced the level of aggression in bipolar type-1 disorder. Therefore, it can be incorporated into nursing care programs.