Empirical support for the use and further study of the countertransference construct in the clinical care of patients with bipolar disorder

We thank Andrew Shaw and colleagues for their recent paper1  in Bipolar Disorders, highlighting that the effective treatment of patients with bipolar disorder requires a good therapeutic alliance, which is related to the clinicians' countertransference reactions and their management. The authors suggest that the integration of a psychodynamic approach into the biological paradigm in psychiatry might be helpful to increase countertransference awareness in clinicians, and potentially improving dyadic communication, resolution of alliance ruptures, and treatment adherence. They also mention that although the theoretical literature on countertransference is well developed, no good empirical studies exist that investigate the countertransferential responses experienced by mental health clinicians involved in the care of individuals during acute phases of bipolar disorder. We would, however, like to add some examples of empirical evidence for the use (and further study) of the countertransference in the clinical care of these patients.