Can Low-Cost Strategies Improve Attendance Rates in Brief Psychological Therapy? Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial.
J Clin Psychol
; 71(12): 1139-52, 2015 Dec.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-26425941
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
To assess if telephone text message appointment reminders and orientation leaflets can increase the proportion of patients who attend brief interventions after being assessed as suitable for guided self-help following cognitive behavioral therapy principles.METHOD:
Attendance was operationally defined as having accessed at least 1 therapy appointment. A secondary outcome was the proportion of attenders who completed or dropped out of therapy. After initial assessment, 254 patients with depression and anxiety disorders were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups (a) usual waitlist control, (b) leaflet, (c) leaflet plus text message. Differences in the proportions of patients who started and completed therapy across groups were assessed using chi-square and logistic regression analyses.RESULTS:
Overall, 63% of patients in this sample attended therapy. Between-group differences were not significant for attendance, x(2) (2) = 3.94, p = .14, or completion rates, x(2) (2) = 2.98, p = .23. These results were not confounded by demographic or clinical characteristics.CONCLUSIONS:
Low-cost strategies appear to make no significant difference to therapy attendance and completion rates.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Anxiety Disorders
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Psychotherapy, Brief
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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
/
Patient Compliance
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Reminder Systems
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Depressive Disorder
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Text Messaging
Type of study:
Clinical_trials
/
Health_economic_evaluation
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
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Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
En
Journal:
J Clin Psychol
Year:
2015
Type:
Article