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Clinical outcomes of psychotherapy dropouts: does dropping out of psychotherapy necessarily mean failure?

Abstract

Objective:

A large proportion of psychotherapy patients remain untreated, mostly because they drop out. This study compares the short- and long-term outcomes of patients who dropped out of psychotherapy to those of therapy completers.

Methods:

The sample included 63 patients (23 dropouts and 40 completers) from a controlled clinical trial, which compared narrative therapy vs. cognitive-behavioral therapy for major depressive disorder. Patients were assessed at the eighth session, post-treatment, and at 31-month follow-up.

Results:

Dropouts improved less than completers by the last session attended, but continued to improve significantly more than completers during the follow-up period. Some dropout patients improved with a small dose of therapy (17% achieved a clinically significant change before abandoning treatment), while others only achieved clinically significant change after a longer period (62% at 31-month follow-up).

Conclusion:

These results emphasize the importance of dealing effectively with patients at risk of dropping out of therapy.Patients who dropped out also reported improvement of depressive symptoms without therapy, but took much longer to improve than did patients who completed therapy. This might be attributable to natural remission of depression. Further research should use a larger patient database, ideally gathered by meta-analysis.

Patient dropout; psychotherapy; outcome assessment; unipolar depression


Introduction

A large proportion of psychotherapy patients remain untreated, and dropout is indicated as a major cause, with average rates of 19.7% across many of the major psychotherapeutic approaches and settings.11. Swift JK, Greenberg RP. Premature discontinuation in adult psychotherapy: a meta-analysis. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2012;80:547-59. Treatment discontinuation is costly to society,22. Le Pen C, Levy E, Ravily V, Beuzen JN, Meurgey F. The cost of treatment dropout in depression. A cost-benefit analysis of fluoxetine vs. tricyclics. J Affect Disord. 1994;31:1-18. to families, and to employers.33. Swift JK, Greenberg RP. Premature termination in psychotherapy: strategies for engaging clients and improving outcomes. Washington: American Psychological Association; 2015. In clinical research, dropout rates are considered an important measure of treatment efficacy and efficiency,44. Houghton S, Curran J, Saxon D. An uncontrolled evaluation of group behavioural activation for depression. Behav Cogn Psychother. 2008;36:235-9. and are a standard measure in psychotherapy outcome reports.55. Moher D, Schulz KF, Altman D;TCONSORT Group (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials). The CONSORT statement: Revised recommendations for improving the quality of reports of parallel-group randomized trials. JAMA. 2001;285:1987-91. This attitude seems to assume implicitly that dropping out is associated with treatment failure.

However, some research has shown that dropping out of psychotherapy is not necessarily associated with treatment failure. For instance, 38% of patients from a randomized clinical trial of psychotherapy for mild depression were found to have recovered from depressive symptoms by session two.66. Barkham M, Rees A, Stiles WB, Hardy GE, Shapiro DA. Dose-effect relations for psychotherapy of mild depression: a quasi-experimental comparison of effects of 2, 8, and 16 sessions. Psychother Res. 2002;12:463-74. In a naturalistic study using data from a large number of psychotherapy patients (n=4,761),77. Hansen NB, Lambert MJ. An evaluation of the dose-response relationship in naturalistic treatment settings using survival analysis. Ment Health Serv Res. 2003;5:1-12. only four sessions were needed for 25% of the sample to improve. In another study, the trajectories of change of 10,854 patients with diverse diagnoses, treated in different settings by more than 513 therapists, were typified.88. Owen J, Adelson J, Budge S, Wampold B, Kopta M, Minami T, et al. Trajectories of change in psychotherapy. J Clin Psychol. 2015;71:817-27. It was found that 75.3% of patients improved rapidly up to the fifth session. Furthermore, some research shows that improvements in symptoms and self-esteem are associated with dropping out of psychotherapy,99. Flückiger C, Meyer A, Wampold BE, Gassmann D, Messerli-Bürgy N, Munsch S. Predicting premature termination within a randomized controlled trial for binge-eating patients. Behav Ther. 2011;42:716-25.,1010. Kegel AF, Flückiger C. Predicting psychotherapy dropouts: a multilevel approach. Clin Psychol Psychother. 2015;22:377-86. which may suggest that some patients terminate because they feel better. This phenomenon is often referred to as the “good enough level” effect.1111. Owen JJ, Adelson J, Budge S, Kopta SM, Reese RJ. Good-enough level and dose-effect models: variation among outcomes and therapists. Psychother Res. 2016;26:22-30. Still, specific investigations into patterns of change in patients who drop out of psychotherapy are scarce.

A recent controlled clinical trial for major depressive disorder (MDD) found that completers of both narrative therapy (NT) and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) experienced significant reductions in depressive symptoms (i.e., significantly more than the natural history of depression).1212. Lopes RT, Gonçalves MM, Machado PP, Sinai D, Bento T, Salgado J. Narrative therapy vs. cognitive-behavioral therapy for moderate depression: empirical evidence from a controlled clinical trial. Psychother Res. 2014;24:662-74. When dropouts were included in the analysis, CBT outcomes were significantly better, which led to the question of whether there was significant variance in the performance of the dropout sample. Although other studies have been conducted with this same sample,1313. Lopes RT, Gonçalves MM, Fassnacht DB, Machado PP, Sousa I. Long-term effects of psychotherapy on moderate depression: a comparative study of narrative therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy. J Affect Disord. 2014;167:64-73.

14. Lopes RT, Gonçalves MM, Fassnacht D, Machado PP, Sousa I. Time to improve and recover from depressive symptoms and interpersonal problems in a clinical trial. Clin Psychol Psychother. 2015;22:97-105.
-1515. Lopes RT, Gonçalves MM, Sinai D, Machado PPP. Predictors of dropout in a controlled clinical trial of psychotherapy for moderate depression. Int J Clin Health Psychol. 2015;15:76-80. none addressed the differential short- and long-term clinical outcomes of dropouts compared with treatment completers. Thus, the aim of the present paper is to compare the short- and long-term clinical outcomes of patients who dropped out from psychotherapy to those of patients who completed psychotherapy. Our focus is to understand comparative clinical outcomes regardless of which form of psychotherapy dropouts had received.

Methods

The procedure of the comparative trial is described in detail in previous reports of the post-treatment1212. Lopes RT, Gonçalves MM, Machado PP, Sinai D, Bento T, Salgado J. Narrative therapy vs. cognitive-behavioral therapy for moderate depression: empirical evidence from a controlled clinical trial. Psychother Res. 2014;24:662-74. and follow-up results.1313. Lopes RT, Gonçalves MM, Fassnacht DB, Machado PP, Sousa I. Long-term effects of psychotherapy on moderate depression: a comparative study of narrative therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy. J Affect Disord. 2014;167:64-73. A brief description of the study design is given below.

Participants

The original controlled clinical trial from which these data were extracted1212. Lopes RT, Gonçalves MM, Machado PP, Sinai D, Bento T, Salgado J. Narrative therapy vs. cognitive-behavioral therapy for moderate depression: empirical evidence from a controlled clinical trial. Psychother Res. 2014;24:662-74.followed all relevant ethical guidelines for human subjects research. All clients and therapists provided written informed consent, and the study protocol was approved by the ethics committee of the university where the research was carried out.

Of 107 screened patients, 81 were selected to participate in this study and receive treatment. Of these, 16 either refused to participate or did not return after the initial assessment. One client in each treatment condition was excluded for comorbid Axis-II disorders. The sample thus included 63 patients (23 dropouts and 40 completers, mostly female, with a mean age of 35.44 years, standard deviation [SD] = 11.51) diagnosed with moderate MDD (according to the DSM-IV criteria),1616. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR). Arlington: American Psychiatric Publishing; 2000. who were assigned quasi-randomly to either NT (n=34) or CBT (n=29).1212. Lopes RT, Gonçalves MM, Machado PP, Sinai D, Bento T, Salgado J. Narrative therapy vs. cognitive-behavioral therapy for moderate depression: empirical evidence from a controlled clinical trial. Psychother Res. 2014;24:662-74. Ten therapists, all psychologists with different levels of experience (mean[years of experience] = 1.9, SD = 2.13), treated the patients individually (mean[patients per therapist] = 6.3, SD = 7.8) in a nested design (i.e., they only treated patients in one treatment manual, the one they felt most comfortable with). The mean number of dropouts per therapist was 2.3 (SD = 3.9).

Dropout was rated by the therapists and defined as unilateral termination by the client without the therapist’s approval or knowledge,1717. Hatchett GT, Park HL. Comparison of four operational definitions of premature termination. Psychother Theory Res Pract Train. 2003;40:226-31. and was considered only for patients who were actually enrolled in the treatment. Definition of dropout by the therapist has been shown to be the most accurate definition.11. Swift JK, Greenberg RP. Premature discontinuation in adult psychotherapy: a meta-analysis. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2012;80:547-59.,1717. Hatchett GT, Park HL. Comparison of four operational definitions of premature termination. Psychother Theory Res Pract Train. 2003;40:226-31. The dropout and completion groups had equivalent general characteristics (age, gender, level of education, socioeconomic status, marital status, and employment status), clinical characteristics at intake (Global Assessment of Functioning [GAF], comorbid anxiety, medication use, previous hospitalization, previous suicide attempt, previous psychotherapy, and pretreatment scores on the Beck Depression Inventory-II [BDI-II] and the Outcome Questionnaire Interpersonal Relations [OQ-45.2] and its subscales), similar scores on perceived therapeutic alliance, and were treated by therapists with similar clinical experience. Dropouts and completers only differed significantly on two variables: the dropout group had significantly more patients who were taking psychiatric medications and a higher prevalence of comorbid anxiety.1515. Lopes RT, Gonçalves MM, Sinai D, Machado PPP. Predictors of dropout in a controlled clinical trial of psychotherapy for moderate depression. Int J Clin Health Psychol. 2015;15:76-80. The mean number of treatment sessions for the dropout group was 6.4 (SD = 4.4),1515. Lopes RT, Gonçalves MM, Sinai D, Machado PPP. Predictors of dropout in a controlled clinical trial of psychotherapy for moderate depression. Int J Clin Health Psychol. 2015;15:76-80. which was significantly lower than in the completers group (mean = 18.15 sessions, SD = 3.23). All participants were contacted 31 months after termination of treatment (regardless of whether termination was by completing treatment or dropping out), and 67% of the patients who began treatment (i.e., 13 dropouts and 29 completers) returned the assessment forms. The reasons for attrition at 31-month follow-up were failure to reply (n=5) or change of address and/or phone number (n=4). As shown in the prior follow-up report,1313. Lopes RT, Gonçalves MM, Fassnacht DB, Machado PP, Sousa I. Long-term effects of psychotherapy on moderate depression: a comparative study of narrative therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy. J Affect Disord. 2014;167:64-73. the retained sample (n=42) is representative of the original treatment sample (n=63), i.e., it is not biased by low or differential returns according to treatment modality (NT or CBT), treatment completion (dropouts or completers), treatment response (achieved clinically significant change or not), or pretreatment differences. There was no attempt to control for continuation treatment.

Treatment conditions

Both the CBT1818. Beck AT, Rush AJ, Shaw BF, Emery G. Cognitive therapy of depression. New York: Guilford Press; 1979. and NT1919. White M. Maps of narrative practice. New York: WW Norton & Company; 2007. treatment manuals included a total of 20 sessions. CBT is the most established psychological treatment for depression to date. It consists of a structured, present-oriented, and problem-focused psychotherapy based on the identification and reframing of negative and dysfunctional thoughts and behaviors.1818. Beck AT, Rush AJ, Shaw BF, Emery G. Cognitive therapy of depression. New York: Guilford Press; 1979.,2020. DeRubeis RJ, Evans MD, Hollon SD, Garvey MJ, Grove WM, Tuason VB. How does cognitive therapy work? Cognitive change and symptom change in cognitive therapy and pharmacotherapy for depression. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1990;58:862-9. NT is a psychotherapeutic approach based on the notion that people construct narratives in order to define themselves and give meaning to their life experiences. The purpose of psychotherapy is to help clients shape new identities and construct stories in a richer and more diverse way.1919. White M. Maps of narrative practice. New York: WW Norton & Company; 2007.,2121. White M, Epston D. Narrative means to therapeutic ends. New York: WW Norton & Company; 1990. Adherence to the manual and therapist competence were ensured through weekly supervision and assessed from the perspective of external judges using video recordings of sessions and a rating scale developed for this purpose, which showed good results for both treatment groups.1212. Lopes RT, Gonçalves MM, Machado PP, Sinai D, Bento T, Salgado J. Narrative therapy vs. cognitive-behavioral therapy for moderate depression: empirical evidence from a controlled clinical trial. Psychother Res. 2014;24:662-74.

Measures

Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II)

The BDI-II2222. Beck AT, Steer RA, Brown GK. Manual for the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). San Antonio: Psychological Corp.; 1996.,2323. Campos RC, Gonçalves B. The Portuguese Version of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Eur J Psychol Assess. 2011;27:258-64. was the primary outcome measure and was used to assess the severity of depressive symptoms. This scale has shown high internal consistency (α = 0.89 in the present intention-to-treat sample and α = 0.912424. Steer RA, Brown GK, Beck AT, Sanderson WC. Mean Beck Depression Inventory-II scores by severity of major depressive episode. Psychol Rep. 2001;88:1075-6.). It has been translated to and validated for Portuguese populations.2323. Campos RC, Gonçalves B. The Portuguese Version of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Eur J Psychol Assess. 2011;27:258-64.,2525. Coelho R, Martins A, Barros H. Clinical profiles relating gender and depressive symptoms among adolescents ascertained by the Beck Depression Inventory II. Eur Psychiatry. 2002;17:222-6. Because the Portuguese studies did not calculate the reliable change index (RCI),2626. Jacobson NS, Truax P. Clinical Significance: a statistical approach to defining meaningful change in psychotherapy research. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1991;59:12-9. normative data gathered from a meta-analysis of diverse samples2727. Seggar LB, Lambert M, Hansen NB. Assessing clinical significance: application to the Beck Depression Inventory. Behav Ther. 2002;33:253-69. were used to calculate the proportion of clinical change (RCI = 8.46; normative cutoff score = 14.29).

Outcome Questionnaire Interpersonal Relations subscale

The OQ-45.2 IR2828. Lambert MJ, Hansen NB, Umphress V, Lunnen K, Okiishi J, Burlingame GM, et al. Administration and scoring manual for the Outcome Questionnaire (OQ 45.2). Stevenson: American Professional Credentialing Services LLC; 1996.,2929. Machado PP, Fassnacht DB. The Portuguese version of the Outcome Questionnaire (OQ-45): normative data, reliability, and clinical significance cut-offs scores. Psychol Psychother. 2015;88:427-37. is an 11-item subscale of the self-report Outcome Questionnaire, which aims to assess interpersonal complaints (e.g., loneliness, conflicts with others, family and marriage problems and sexual concerns). Lambert et al.3030. Lambert MJ, Burlingame GM, Umphress V, Hansen NB, Vermeersch DA, Clouse GC, et al. The reliability and validity of the outcome questionnaire. Clin Psychol Psychother. 1996;3:249-58. found good internal consistency (α = 0.74) and test-retest reliability (r = 0.80). Umphress et al.3131. Umphress VJ, Lambert MJ, Smart DW, Barlow SH, Clouse G. Concurrent and construct validity of the outcome questionnaire. J Psychoeduc Assess. 1997;15:40-55. reported good concurrent validity for the OQ-45.2 IR subscale. High correlations were found between the OQ-45.2 IR and the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP),3232. Horowitz LM, Alden LE, Wiggins JS, Pincus AL. IIP, inventory of interpersonal problems manual. New York: Psychological Corp.; 2000.,3333. Horowitz LM, Rosenberg SE, Baer BA, Ureño G, Villaseñor VS. Inventory of interpersonal problems: psychometric properties and clinical applications. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1988;56:885-92. a widely used measure of interpersonal functioning.

Results

Raw means, standard deviations, and effect sizes for the time points used in the analyses (i.e., session one, session eight, last session attended, and the 31-month follow-up assessment) are provided in Table 1.

Table 1
Raw means, standard deviations, and effect sizes for the first, eighth, and last sessions attended and the 31-month follow-up assessment

A two-by-two (time: first and last session attended × status: dropouts or completers) mixed ANOVA showed a significant effect of time for both the BDI-II (F1,61 = 42.990, p = 0.0001) and OQ-45.2 IR (F1,61 = 8.010, p = 0.006). Significant time × status interactions were also found for both the BDI-II (F1,61 = 8.404, p = 0.005) and OQ-45.2 IR (F1,61 = 8.816, p = 0.004), with a greater reduction for completers.

To reduce the effect of the different amount of treatment received by dropouts and completers, the former analysis was repeated using the eighth session as the endpoint instead of the last session attended. The eighth session was chosen because it was the next time point of assessment after the mean length of stay in treatment for the dropout group (6.4 sessions, SD = 4.4). By session eight, 57% of dropouts had abandoned treatment. Missing data for patients dropping out before the eighth session were filled in using the last observation carried forward method.3434. Shao J, Zhong B. Last observation carry-forward and last observation analysis. Stat Med. 2003;22:2429-41. On the BDI-II, there was a significant main effect for time (F1,61 = 25.098, p = 0.0001), which showed a reduction in symptoms from session one to session eight, along with a significant time × status interaction (F1,61 = 5.083, p = 0.028), in which completers still had a greater reduction in symptoms. However, on the OQ-45.2 IR, there was no significant effect for time (F1,61 = 3.390, p = 0.070), nor any significant time × status interaction (F1,61 = 3.148, p = 0.081).

A two-by-two (time: post-treatment and 31-month follow-up × status) ANOVA showed a significant effect of time for both the BDI-II (F1,40 = 5.605, p = 0.023) and OQ-45.2 IR (F1,40 = 4.89, p = 0.044), which indicated a further reduction in symptoms from post-treatment to follow-up. A significant time × status interaction was found for the BDI-II (F1,40 = 13.294, p = 0.001), but not for the OQ-45.2 IR (F1,40 = 2.011, p = 0.164), which indicated a significantly greater reduction in depressive symptoms for dropouts.

According to Jacobson and Truax’s clinical significance criteria,2626. Jacobson NS, Truax P. Clinical Significance: a statistical approach to defining meaningful change in psychotherapy research. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1991;59:12-9. by the last session attended, significantly fewer dropouts had achieved clinically significant change (17%) when compared with the completers (45%) (χ(1, n=63)2=3.75,p=0.027) (Table 2). However, a considerable proportion of dropouts had achieved clinically significant change by 31-month follow-up (62%). At follow-up, dropouts had achieved clinically significant change significantly more (46% of the retained dropout sample) compared with completers (18% of the retained completer sample, χ(1, n=42)2=3.89, p = 0.044).

Table 2
Proportion of reliable and clinically significant changes in depressive symptoms (BDI-II) for dropouts and completers on their last attended session and at 31-month follow-up

Discussion

This study presents original analyses assessing the clinical outcomes of a sample of dropouts from a clinical trial of psychotherapy for depression. Before dropping out of treatment, 17% of dropouts recovered, which suggests that they left treatment after a significant improvement in their symptoms. Nevertheless, dropouts showed a more modest reduction in depressive symptoms and interpersonal problems by the last session attended than did treatment completers. Considering only the eight initial sessions for both groups, completers still exhibited superior outcomes regarding reduction of depressive symptoms, but dropouts and completers did not differ in their reduction of interpersonal problems. These findings were consistent with results obtained from a previous dose-response research study with this very sample, which demonstrated that the effects of psychotherapy are initially detected on depressive symptoms and only later on interpersonal problems.1414. Lopes RT, Gonçalves MM, Fassnacht D, Machado PP, Sousa I. Time to improve and recover from depressive symptoms and interpersonal problems in a clinical trial. Clin Psychol Psychother. 2015;22:97-105. This is line with the “phase model” of psychotherapy, which predicts that improvements in well-being and symptoms tend to occur early in therapy (with dramatic changes in the beginning of treatment), whereas improvements in interpersonal functioning occur later.3535. Hilsenroth MJ, Ackerman SJ, Blagys MD. Evaluating the phase model of change during short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy. Psychother Res. 2001;11:29-47.

36. Howard KI, Lueger RJ, Maling MS, Martinovich Z. A phase model of psychotherapy outcome: causal mediation of change. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1993;61:678-85.
-3737. Swift JK, Callahan JL, Heath CJ, Herbert GL, Levine JC. Applications of the psychotherapy phase model to clinically significant deterioration. Psychotherapy (Chic). 2010;47:235-48.

Our finding of improvement in dropouts at long-term follow-up (62% recovery rate) should not be interpreted solely as an effect of psychotherapy, but rather may be due to their high scores by the last session attended or to the natural course of depression. Patients who did not recover were overrepresented in the dropout group; thus, they had more chances to achieve recovery at follow-up (i.e., a ceiling effect), which is a limitation of the study. Still, these findings can be informative for psychotherapists and psychotherapy patients regarding the prognosis of depressive symptoms.

We had a return rate of 67% at 31-month assessment, which is similar to return rates reported in other trials of even shorter follow-up periods (e.g., 69% at 1-year follow-up,3838. Barkham M, Shapiro DA, Hardy GE, Rees A. Psychotherapy in two-plus-one sessions: outcomes of a randomized controlled trial of cognitive-behavioral and psychodynamic-interpersonal therapy for subsyndromal depression. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1999;67:201-11. 43% at 10-month follow-up,3939. Snell MN, Mallinckrodt B, Hill RD, Lambert M. Predicting counseling center clients’ response to counseling: a 1-year follow-up. J Couns Psychol. 2001;48:463-73. 61% at 3-month follow-up4040. Vromans LP, Schweitzer RD. Narrative therapy for adults with major depressive disorder: improved symptom and interpersonal outcomes. Psychother Res. 2011;21:4-15.). Still, the sample size was small; thus, generalization of these findings is limited. This may be regarded as the main limitation of our study.

Previous research shows that patients receiving education about typical treatment length had adjusted expectations and dropped out significantly less than those patients who had not received such education.4141. Swift JK, Callahan JL. Decreasing treatment dropout by addressing expectations for treatment length. Psychother Res. 2011;21:193-200. These findings emphasize the importance of dealing effectively with patients at risk of dropping out, and can ground clinicians’ recommendations to potential dropout patients on the beneficial short-term advantages of completing treatment (or at least receiving a larger psychotherapy dose). On the basis of the findings presented herein, we suggest that dropping out of therapy does not necessarily indicate clinical failure; some patients do leave treatment after having achieved a clinically significant change in depressive symptoms (i.e., they received a “good enough” psychotherapy dose), while others also go on to achieve clinically significant change, but only in the long run. Ideally, these findings may suggest that dropouts will improve even without therapy. Realistically, they suggest that improvements might take longer to occur for patients who abandon treatment than for patients who complete treatment. Future studies should clarify whether this phenomenon reflects an acquisition of skills despite dropping out from treatment, which might allow dropouts to improve at a slower pace than completers, or if it simply reflects natural remission of depressive episodes and a ceiling effect among completers. Further research might include a replication of these analyses using a larger patient database, ideally gathered by meta-analysis.

Acknowledgements

This study was conducted at Centro de Investigação em Psicologia (UID/PSI/01662/2013), Universidade do Minho, supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education through national funds, and co-financed by Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER) through COMPETE2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653) and through a doctoral grant to RTL (SFRH/BD/47343/2008). The authors would like to thank the patients, therapists, and staff at the psychological service at Universidade do Minho who participated in the various segments of this study, with special thanks to Cátia Von Doellinger, who helped with data collection at follow-up and statistical analysis. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 42nd International Meeting of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, held in Bern, Switzerland, in June 2011.

References

  • 1
    Swift JK, Greenberg RP. Premature discontinuation in adult psychotherapy: a meta-analysis. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2012;80:547-59.
  • 2
    Le Pen C, Levy E, Ravily V, Beuzen JN, Meurgey F. The cost of treatment dropout in depression. A cost-benefit analysis of fluoxetine vs. tricyclics. J Affect Disord. 1994;31:1-18.
  • 3
    Swift JK, Greenberg RP. Premature termination in psychotherapy: strategies for engaging clients and improving outcomes. Washington: American Psychological Association; 2015.
  • 4
    Houghton S, Curran J, Saxon D. An uncontrolled evaluation of group behavioural activation for depression. Behav Cogn Psychother. 2008;36:235-9.
  • 5
    Moher D, Schulz KF, Altman D;TCONSORT Group (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials). The CONSORT statement: Revised recommendations for improving the quality of reports of parallel-group randomized trials. JAMA. 2001;285:1987-91.
  • 6
    Barkham M, Rees A, Stiles WB, Hardy GE, Shapiro DA. Dose-effect relations for psychotherapy of mild depression: a quasi-experimental comparison of effects of 2, 8, and 16 sessions. Psychother Res. 2002;12:463-74.
  • 7
    Hansen NB, Lambert MJ. An evaluation of the dose-response relationship in naturalistic treatment settings using survival analysis. Ment Health Serv Res. 2003;5:1-12.
  • 8
    Owen J, Adelson J, Budge S, Wampold B, Kopta M, Minami T, et al. Trajectories of change in psychotherapy. J Clin Psychol. 2015;71:817-27.
  • 9
    Flückiger C, Meyer A, Wampold BE, Gassmann D, Messerli-Bürgy N, Munsch S. Predicting premature termination within a randomized controlled trial for binge-eating patients. Behav Ther. 2011;42:716-25.
  • 10
    Kegel AF, Flückiger C. Predicting psychotherapy dropouts: a multilevel approach. Clin Psychol Psychother. 2015;22:377-86.
  • 11
    Owen JJ, Adelson J, Budge S, Kopta SM, Reese RJ. Good-enough level and dose-effect models: variation among outcomes and therapists. Psychother Res. 2016;26:22-30.
  • 12
    Lopes RT, Gonçalves MM, Machado PP, Sinai D, Bento T, Salgado J. Narrative therapy vs. cognitive-behavioral therapy for moderate depression: empirical evidence from a controlled clinical trial. Psychother Res. 2014;24:662-74.
  • 13
    Lopes RT, Gonçalves MM, Fassnacht DB, Machado PP, Sousa I. Long-term effects of psychotherapy on moderate depression: a comparative study of narrative therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy. J Affect Disord. 2014;167:64-73.
  • 14
    Lopes RT, Gonçalves MM, Fassnacht D, Machado PP, Sousa I. Time to improve and recover from depressive symptoms and interpersonal problems in a clinical trial. Clin Psychol Psychother. 2015;22:97-105.
  • 15
    Lopes RT, Gonçalves MM, Sinai D, Machado PPP. Predictors of dropout in a controlled clinical trial of psychotherapy for moderate depression. Int J Clin Health Psychol. 2015;15:76-80.
  • 16
    American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR). Arlington: American Psychiatric Publishing; 2000.
  • 17
    Hatchett GT, Park HL. Comparison of four operational definitions of premature termination. Psychother Theory Res Pract Train. 2003;40:226-31.
  • 18
    Beck AT, Rush AJ, Shaw BF, Emery G. Cognitive therapy of depression. New York: Guilford Press; 1979.
  • 19
    White M. Maps of narrative practice. New York: WW Norton & Company; 2007.
  • 20
    DeRubeis RJ, Evans MD, Hollon SD, Garvey MJ, Grove WM, Tuason VB. How does cognitive therapy work? Cognitive change and symptom change in cognitive therapy and pharmacotherapy for depression. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1990;58:862-9.
  • 21
    White M, Epston D. Narrative means to therapeutic ends. New York: WW Norton & Company; 1990.
  • 22
    Beck AT, Steer RA, Brown GK. Manual for the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). San Antonio: Psychological Corp.; 1996.
  • 23
    Campos RC, Gonçalves B. The Portuguese Version of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Eur J Psychol Assess. 2011;27:258-64.
  • 24
    Steer RA, Brown GK, Beck AT, Sanderson WC. Mean Beck Depression Inventory-II scores by severity of major depressive episode. Psychol Rep. 2001;88:1075-6.
  • 25
    Coelho R, Martins A, Barros H. Clinical profiles relating gender and depressive symptoms among adolescents ascertained by the Beck Depression Inventory II. Eur Psychiatry. 2002;17:222-6.
  • 26
    Jacobson NS, Truax P. Clinical Significance: a statistical approach to defining meaningful change in psychotherapy research. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1991;59:12-9.
  • 27
    Seggar LB, Lambert M, Hansen NB. Assessing clinical significance: application to the Beck Depression Inventory. Behav Ther. 2002;33:253-69.
  • 28
    Lambert MJ, Hansen NB, Umphress V, Lunnen K, Okiishi J, Burlingame GM, et al. Administration and scoring manual for the Outcome Questionnaire (OQ 45.2). Stevenson: American Professional Credentialing Services LLC; 1996.
  • 29
    Machado PP, Fassnacht DB. The Portuguese version of the Outcome Questionnaire (OQ-45): normative data, reliability, and clinical significance cut-offs scores. Psychol Psychother. 2015;88:427-37.
  • 30
    Lambert MJ, Burlingame GM, Umphress V, Hansen NB, Vermeersch DA, Clouse GC, et al. The reliability and validity of the outcome questionnaire. Clin Psychol Psychother. 1996;3:249-58.
  • 31
    Umphress VJ, Lambert MJ, Smart DW, Barlow SH, Clouse G. Concurrent and construct validity of the outcome questionnaire. J Psychoeduc Assess. 1997;15:40-55.
  • 32
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Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    30 Aug 2017
  • Date of issue
    Apr-June 2018

History

  • Received
    7 Mar 2017
  • Accepted
    9 May 2017
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