What is the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD) Study?
A. STEP-BD is the largest, federally-funded treatment study ever conducted for bipolar disorder1. It is a long-term outpatient study that enrolled 4,360 participants from 22 sites over seven years (1998 to 2005). STEP-BD was designed to find out which treatments, or combinations of treatments, are most effective for treating episodes of depression and mania and for preventing recurrent episodes in people with bipolar disorder. STEP-BD is different from typical clinical trials that test one potential new treatment. It is a broad research program that includes several different studies, each aimed at a different aspect of treatment for the illness. Multiple treatments, including medications and psychotherapies, currently are available for people with bipolar disorder, but doctors are often uncertain which of these treatments actually work best for specific aspects of the illness.2 STEP-BD’s size, scope and broad criteria for inclusion of participants will make its findings relevant to al
