Environmental factors associated with continuers and terminators in adult out-patient psychotherapy

Two separate studies examined five areas in the patient's environment (e.g. life adjustment, external support, alternative counsel, intercurrent stress events, and other factors such as transport availability, and difficulty obtaining time off work) which may influence continuation or premature termination from psychotherapy. In the first study, a mail questionnaire was completed by 69 adult clients (32 terminators and 37 continuers) who attended for therapy at a state-controlled psychiatric out-patient clinic. Multivariate analysis of variance on each set of environmental variables failed to achieve significance. Univariate analysis, however, showed the effect of alternative counsel in the community such as the number of people with whom clients could discuss their problems outside of the treatment setting. Continuers, for example, had access to more individuals in the community and actually received more help from specific individuals (e.g. spouses) than did terminators. A replication study was conducted on 45 clients (21 terminators and 24 continuers) who attended for treatment during a further period. Results from the second study showed similar patterning in the data as for Study 1. The role of informal support in conjunction with therapy cannot be overlooked as possibly assisting clients to continue towards their desired goals of treatment.