Citation

Gutner CA, Gallagher MW, Baker AS, Sloan DM, Resick PA. Psychol. Trauma 2016; 8(1): 115-121.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/tra0000062

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A substantial minority of people drop out of cognitive-behavioral therapies (CBTs) for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). There has been considerable research investigating who drops out of PTSD treatment; however, the question of when dropout occurs has received far less attention. The purpose of the current study was to examine when individuals drop out of CBT for PTSD. Women participants (N = 321) were randomized to 1 of several PTSD treatment conditions. The conditions included prolonged exposure (PE), cognitive processing therapy (CPT), CPT--cognitive only (CPT-C), and written accounts (WA). Survival analysis was used to examine temporal pattern of treatment dropout. Thirty-nine percent of participants dropped out of treatment, and those who dropped out tended to do so by midtreatment. Moreover, the pattern of treatment dropout was consistent across CBT conditions. Additional research is needed to examine if treatment dropout patterns are consistent across treatment modalities and settings.

(PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Language: en