Increasing group attendance on a psychiatric unit: an alternating treatments design comparison

Compliance is a critical factor for success in the treatment of chronic psychiatric patients. Major reasons for therapeutic failure are that patients discontinue their medications, fail to keep therapist appointments, or do not participate in recommended psychosocial activities. An alternating treatments design was employed to assess the use of verbal instructions and feedback to promote group attendance on a psychiatric unit. Results showed these methods served to significantly increase group attendance but had no significant effect on patient satisfaction. These results are discussed with regard to cost-efficient methods for promoting treatment compliance with psychiatric inpatients.