Improvement in clients who have given different reasons for dropping out of treatment

Addressed the dropout problem by (a) directly asking clients their reasons for dropping out; and (b) assessing pretherapy to follow-up symptom change in clients grouped by dropout reason. Forty-six dropouts who had been administered the Brief Symptom Inventory at intake were contacted 3 months later. At follow-up they were asked their reasons for dropping out and readministered the Brief Symptom Inventory. It was found that 39% quit due to "no need for services," 35% due to "environmental constraints," and 26% due to "dislike of services." The "no need for services" and "environmental constraints" groups had significant decreases in intake to follow-up Brief Symptom Inventory scores. Dropouts were found to be a heterogeneous group whose follow-up adjustment was related to termination reason. This contradicts prevailing notions that consider all dropouts as treatment failures.