BIPOLAR DISORDER

Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar Disorder

1. Title of the Study

The title of the aritcle is “Persons Living with Bipolar Disorder — Their View of the Illness And The Future”.

2. Authors' Names, credentials, affiliations

This article is written by a team of four authors, including:

Patrik Dahlqvist J¨onsson, RN

The Sahlgrenska Academy/The V°ardal Institute at G¨oteborg

University, Institute of Health and Caring Sciences,

G¨oteborg, Sweden; and Psychiatric Services in Halland,

Halmstad, Sweden

Helle Wijk, RNT, PhD

The Sahlgrenska Academy at G¨oteborg University,

Institute of Health and Care Sciences, G¨oteborg, Sweden

Ingela Sk¨ars¨ater, RN, PhD

The Sahlgrenska Academy/ The V°ardal Institute at G¨oteborg

University, Institute of Health and Caring Sciences,

G¨oteborg, Sweden; and Psychiatric Services in Halland,

Halmstad, Sweden

Ella Danielson, RN, PhD

The Sahlgrenska Academy at G¨oteborg University, Institute of Health and Care Sciences, G¨oteborg, Sweden; and Mid

Sweden University, Department of Health Sciences,

O¨ stersund, Sweden

3. What type of study is this? Quantitative? Qualitative? What type?: exploratory, correlational, descriptive, phenomenological, ethnographic, etc

This study is based on qualitative research analysis. The authors have used interview as an instrument for this study. Purely qualitative researchers work from the inter-pretive-constructivist paradigm. They believe that the way to understand phenomena is through exploring people's interpretations. Qualitative researchers use designs such as case study, ethnography, phenomenology, grounded theory, and narrative inquiry. Data collection is carried out as naturahstically as possible in the research context through the use of observations, interviews, and collection of documents and records. Some examples of qualitative research include a case study of counseling techniques at a clinic, an ethnography of a school counselor's day-to-day practice over an extended period of time, and an examination of counselors' use of intuition in a phenomenological study.

While there are many detailed approaches to qualitative analysis, qualitative research is analyzed categorically or thematically; the researcher reads the data to identify similarities and dissimilarities. Qualitative data analysis begins with preparing the data, which means organizing the data, documents, field notes, or other visual data. Taped interviews are transcribed. Exploring the qualitative data is next and involves making notes about early observations as well as developing codes. Codes are words, phrases, or even sentences that are assigned to chunks of qualitative data that allow researchers to categorize the data into themes. Data analysis then involves the researcher coding the data by reading the raw data (field notes, interview transcripts, researcher observations, etc.) and assigning codes to small portions of the text. Codes are then grouped together to form themes. Themes can be grouped together to form more themes. Software packages are available to help develop themes in qualitative data.

In qualitative research, methods of data collection almost always involve face-to-face interaction with the study community and the study participants. The researcher is the most important instrument of data collection. This collection calls for considerable introspection, reflection on possible biases, and maintenance of personal notes that help the researcher sort out how his or her personality, personal values, and implicit prejudices may interact with the research situation or influence the setting, and therefore change the data that can be collected or to narrow or otherwise bend or influence what ...