Investigating aggressive styles and defense mechanisms in bipolar patients and in their parents

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a very common mental health disorder, whose etiology concerning aggressive styles and defense mechanisms is still poorly known despite the efforts dedicated to develop psychological and biological theories. After obtaining written signed informed consent, this study will recruit inpatients with a clinical diagnosis of BD, based on Structured Clinical Interview and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders criteria, and their parents. The Bus-Perry Aggression Questionnaire, the Defense Style Questionnaire 40, the Symptom check list SCL-90-R, developed by DeRogatis will be administered to the participants, together with a semi-structured questionnaire concerning demographic data (age, gender, employment, education) and only for the patients clinical information (onset year of the disorder, presence of co-morbidities, alcohol and drug use, suicide tendencies, kind of treatment). All the questionnaires are in the Italian validated version. The successful completion of this study will shed light on the relationship between aggressive styles and defensive mechanisms in bipolar inpatients and in their parents, helping the clinicians to develop ad hoc psychological interventions.