Abstract
There has been considerable concern by both the clinical and research communities as to whether psychotherapy dropouts represent a more dysfunctional group than those who remain in treatment. To investigate this issue, we examined a self-report symptom checklist, a psychiatric diagnosis, demographic information, and a therapist-rated level of functioning measure for each of 817 patients, of whom 202 had terminated therapy in less than three sessions. Comparisons between these groups suggest that, contrary to the prevailing clinical assumptions, dropouts may indeed be better functioning than nondropouts.
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The data presented here were collected under the auspices of the National Institute of Mental HealthContract278-78-oo64(OP). The authors wish to acknowledge Herbert Rappaport, William Tash, and Richard Woy for their contributions to the initial project.
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Stahler, G.J., Eisenman, R. Psychotherapy dropouts: Do they have poor psychological adjustment?. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 25, 198–200 (1987). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03330327
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03330327