With these caveats in mind, there is fairly consistent evidence from prospective studies that recent life
events and supportive interpersonal relationships predict the likelihood of onsets and recurrences of
bipolar mood episodes, as they do for onsets and recurrences of unipolar depression. In addition,
psychosocial treatments designed to decrease interpersonal stressors and destabilization of daily rhythms
(IPSRT) or to improve family communication skills and social support (FFT) show great promise as
adjunctive treatments for bipolar disorder. Further exploration of specific types of life events, such as
social rhythm disrupting and BAS-relevant events, that may provide specific risk for bipolar mood
episodes is clearly warranted. The cognitive style literature provides some consistency in suggesting that