Factors associated with dropout from treatment: An exploratory study

AIM: To evaluate the factors associated with treatment dropout among patients attending the psychiatric outpatient services. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Seventy-two patients who dropped out from treatment were contacted and they were compared with 200 regular attendees for sociodemographic and clinical variables, medication adherence, treatment satisfaction, attitude toward medication, insight, and therapeutic alliance. RESULTS: Compared to “regular attendees,” those who dropped out from treatment were significantly older, were more likely to be married, had higher age of onset, had longer duration of illness, received less supervision for medication at home, higher proportion of them continued to remain symptomatic, had more negative attitude toward medications, had poorer insight, were poorly complaint with medication, were less satisfied with the treatment provided, and had poor quality of therapeutic alliance. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that dropout from treatment can be avoided by addressing issues of negative attitude toward medications, improving satisfaction with the treatment contact and enhancing therapeutic alliance.