Dropout from psychological therapies for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adults: systematic review and meta-analysis
Dropout rates from recommended psychological therapies for PTSD are high and this appears to be true of interventions with a trauma focus.
Article Abstract
“Background: Despite the established efficacy of psychological therapies for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) there has been little systematic exploration of dropout rates.
Objective: To ascertain rates of dropout across different modalities of psychological therapy for PTSD and to explore potential sources of heterogeneity.
Method: A systematic review of dropout rates from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of psychological therapies was conducted. The pooled rate of dropout from psychological therapies was estimated and reasons for heterogeneity explored using meta-regression.
Results: The pooled rate of dropout from RCTs of psychological therapies for PTSD was 16% (95% CI 14–18%). There was evidence of substantial heterogeneity across studies. We found evidence that psychological therapies with a trauma-focus were significantly associated with greater dropout. There was no evidence of greater dropout from therapies delivered in a group format; from studies that recruited participants from clinical services rather than via advertisements; that included only military personnel/veterans; that were limited to participants traumatized by sexual traumas; that included a higher proportion of female participants; or from studies with a lower proportion of participants who were university educated.
Conclusions: Dropout rates from recommended psychological therapies for PTSD are high and this appears to be particularly true of interventions with a trauma focus. There is a need to further explore the reasons for dropout and to look at ways of increasing treatment retention.”
—Description from publisher
Article Access
Open Access
Lewis, C., Roberts, N. P., Gibson, S., & Bisson, J. I. (2019). Dropout from psychological therapies for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adults: systematic review and meta-analysis. European Journal of Psychotraumatology. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2019.1709709
Date
October 29, 2019
Creator(s)
Catrin Lewis, Neil P. Roberts, Samuel Gibson
Contributor(s)
Jonathan I. Bisson
Topics
PTSD
Extent
22 pages
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Rights
© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
APA Citation
Lewis, C., Roberts, N. P., Gibson, S., & Bisson, J. I. (2019). Dropout from psychological therapies for post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD) in adults: systematic review and meta-analysis. European Journal of Psychotraumatology. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2019.1709709
Audience
EMDR Therapists, Other Mental Health Professionals
Language
English
Content Type
Article, Meta-analyses/Systematic Reviews, Peer-Reviewed
Access Type
External Resource, Open Access
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