Several guidelines consider psychosocial treatments an essential component of clinical management of bipolar disorders in addition to drug therapy. However, to what extent such interventions are available in everyday practice to the average patient attending mental health services is not known.

This study aims to investigate access of people with bipolar disorders to psychosocial treatments in a community-based care system.

Information on care delivery and service utilization were retrieved from the psychiatric database of Lombardy, Italy, covering a population of 9,743,000, for all adults who had at least one contact in 2009 with psychiatric services. Rates of patients with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder who had access to individual psychotherapy, couple/family therapy, group psychotherapy and family interventions were calculated and compared to patients with schizophrenia and depression.

A total of 8,899 subjects with bipolar disorder had been in contact with psychiatric services, corresponding to a treated annual prevalence rate of 1.1. More than 80% of patients were treated in community settings. Rates of patients receiving structured psychosocial treatments ranged from 0.7% for couple/family therapy to 6.1% for individual psychotherapy. No differences with patients with schizophrenia and depression were found. Patients with schizophrenia received more interventions labeled as rehabilitation.

Few people with bipolar disorders had access to psychosocial treatments. Even in a well-developed system of community care, offer of psychosocial interventions for bipolar disorders is inadequate. This issue should be a target for future research on dissemination and implementation strategies.