Abstract
Attrition is one of the most vexing problems for the effective delivery of behavioral health services. Most prior studies focus on patient demographics and psychopathology factors predicting dropout. We examined patient and therapist post-treatment reports of barriers to attending treatment. Six hundred adolescents and their therapists completed the Perceived Barriers to Treatment scale (PBT) at discharge from a brief substance abuse intervention. After adjusting for covariates, results suggest that perceived barriers, in particular, practical obstacles, lack of treatment readiness, relevance, and compatibility, are related to sessions attended. Shifting to a more patient-centered approach for understanding treatment retention is discussed. (Am J Addict 2006;15:16–25)
Notes
aThe mean percentages of required sessions attended for each tx group were the following (range=5%→100%): ACRA-58.5%, FSNM-63.2%, METCBT12-66.5%, METCBT5-80.3%, MDFT-66.1%. See reference 24 for descriptions of the treatments. The only significant post hoc differences among these percentages were between METCBT5 (which had only 5 required sessions) and each of the other conditions.