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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2016 Jan;8(1):115-21.
doi: 10.1037/tra0000062. Epub 2015 Jun 22.

Time course of treatment dropout in cognitive-behavioral therapies for posttraumatic stress disorder

Cassidy A Gutner  1 , Matthew W Gallagher  1 , Aaron S Baker  2 , Denise M Sloan  1 , Patricia A Resick  3
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Time course of treatment dropout in cognitive-behavioral therapies for posttraumatic stress disorder

Cassidy A Gutner et al. Psychol Trauma. 2016 Jan.

Abstract

A substantial minority of people drop out of cognitive-behavioral therapies (CBTs) for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). There has been considerable research investigating who drops out of PTSD treatment; however, the question of when dropout occurs has received far less attention. The purpose of the current study was to examine when individuals drop out of CBT for PTSD. Women participants (N = 321) were randomized to 1 of several PTSD treatment conditions. The conditions included prolonged exposure (PE), cognitive processing therapy (CPT), CPT-cognitive only (CPT-C), and written accounts (WA). Survival analysis was used to examine temporal pattern of treatment dropout. Thirty-nine percent of participants dropped out of treatment, and those who dropped out tended to do so by midtreatment. Moreover, the pattern of treatment dropout was consistent across CBT conditions. Additional research is needed to examine if treatment dropout patterns are consistent across treatment modalities and settings.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Top graph: Hazard function indicating proportion of individuals who dropped out from treatment at different treatment intervals. Bottom graph: Survival function indicating the cumulative proportion of individuals who remained in treatment at different sessions. Both graphs include individuals from all four treatment conditions examined (CPT, CPT-C, PE, & WA).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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