Should I stay or should I go – predicting psychotherapy dropout in a university training clinic

Abstract

Psychotherapy dropout has adverse effects on patients, therapists and mental health care organizations. Research has found demographic variables, thera-pist experience, diagnosis and treatment setting to be related to dropout. Other variables, for instance symptom severity and interpersonal problems have been sparsely studied. The present study aimed to examine and predict psy-chotherapy dropout from a university training clinic sample of 350 patients. Patients of Psychodynamic Therapy displayed greater dropout rates than Brief Dynamic Therapy patients (71.2% vs 44.5%). Two binary logistic regressions were conducted, indicating that being older, being a student and being more socially avoidant predicted dropout from Brief Dynamic Therapy. Psychody-namic Therapy dropout could not be predicted. Results are discussed and rec-ommendations for future research are made.