Dr. Shyamanta Das
Bipolar affective disorders (BPAD) are brain disorders that cause changes in a person’s mood, energy, and ability to function. It is a mental health condition in which common emotions become intense and often unpredictably magnified. Swinging from an extreme of happiness, energy, and clarity to another extreme of sadness, fatigue, and confusion, seem to be a cardinal feature of individuals with BPAD. These shifts can be so devastating that individuals may choose suicide. Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a common comorbidity in depressed clients that is also underdiagnosed. A significant percentage of clients with BPD fall into the bipolar spectrum, and the two disorders are closely linked in phenomenology and treatment response.
Culture is a term we use to describe the values, beliefs, practices, and ways in which a community or society lives. It also includes the way people express themselves, communicate, and interact with one another. In a country like India, where culture has been considered an important element, cultural competency is one of the most important aspects that we require as a mental health professional. Cultural competency helps us to decide how appropriate our communication is, the approach we have towards sensitive issues in terms of parenting and family communication, and how we facilitate problem-solving in therapy, making the therapy tailor-made for the client.
In a therapeutic alliance, it is found that the core beliefs of a particular model which is scientifically proven beneficial for a BPAD with BPD could be affected by the cultural background of a particular person. In “Effect of socio-cultural factors in therapeutic intervention”, published in the Open Journal of Psychiatry & Allied Sciences (OJPAS®), Vasundharaa S Nair, Febna Moorkath, and Mysore Narasimha Vranda presented a case study, living in the patriarchal background of the family, restricted the gender-based movement of the client, making it difficult to use a specific therapy model in its rich form, making it important for the therapist to include the elements, making it contextual.
