Treatment dropout at a secondary mental health service

• Autor(a) principal: Ribeiro,Mário Sérgio
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Outros Autores: Xavier Júnior,José Cândido Caldeira, Mascarenhas,Tiago Rodrigues, Silva,Priscila Matthiesen, Vieira,Eveline Maria de Melo, Ribeiro,Luiz Cláudio
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Trends in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2237-60892012000400006
• topic: Patient dropouts; mental health; secondary health care; quality of health care

OBJECTIVE: To investigate mental health dropout rates in secondary care and to identify possible associations between this variable and social, demographic, psychopathologic, and health care process-related variables. METHOD: This prospective, observational study included 994 patients referred to a secondary service by four primary care units and evaluated by a specialist mental health team between 2004 and 2008. The dependent variable was treatment dropout. Bivariate analyses investigated possible associations between treatment dropout and 57 independent variables. RESULTS: The overall dropout rate from specialist mental health treatment was relatively low (mean = 25.6%). Only four independent variables were associated with dropout: one socioeconomic, two psychopathological, and one health care process variable. All associations were marginally significant (p < 0.1). CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that family members, patients, and health care professionals are well engaged in this mental health care system based on a model of primary care. The use of this mental health model of care should be extended to other regions of our country.