Age-based transition periods and the outcome of mental health treatment

Do people ever get too old to change? Studies of the influence of the age of adult patients on the outcome of mental health treatment have led to inconsistent results. Design characteristics of such studies have limited our understanding of the relationship between age and outcome. Over 300 male veterans undergoing brief inpatient psychiatric treatment were categorized according to their age-based, adult developmental period (Levinson, Darrow, Klein, Levinson, & McKee, 1978). Improvement during treatment was found to be significantly related to the patient's developmental stage (r = .25, p less than .01). These results wee cross-validated and replicated using three different techniques for measuring improvement. Patients treated during transition periods, whether young or old, improved most. These results were not limited to wartime veterans. Apparently, adult males are more responsive to mental health treatment during transition periods than at other times.