Who will stay and who will go? Identifying risk factors for psychotherapy dropout

Abstract

Objective

Dropout from psychotherapy remains an issue across various treatment modalities and psychological disorders, with roughly 20% of clients failing to complete treatment. Dropping out of psychotherapy is associated with worse psychological and physical health outcomes. This study aimed to use a clinically generalisable definition of dropout to identify risk factors for dropping out of psychotherapy.

Method

Retrospective chart review methods were used to collect data on 203 clients seen at a community-based clinical psychology doctoral training clinic.

Results

Independent samples t-tests and chi-squared tests for independence indicated that clients who dropped out of psychotherapy were more likely to be non-students, live farther away from the treatment clinic and no-show at least once in the first four sessions of therapy.

Discussion

To address dropout risk, it is important that clinicians be attuned to possible indicators of structural and motivational barriers to treatment engagement.