Treatment completion and outcome in a partial hospitalization program: interactions among patient variables

Abstract

Reviews of treatment completion suggest using psychological variables and more complex designs to help predict completion status and understand the relationships among variables. 102 patients (mean age 37.9 yrs) with serious emotional, coping, and interpersonal problems were admitted to a partial hospitalization program. 58 completed the program and 44 terminated prematurely. Psychological mindedness (PM), interpersonal problems, and chronicity of psychiatric problems were used as predictors. A hierarchical logistic regression was conducted. PM and chronicity emerged as statistically significant individual predictors of completion status. Only chronicity increased the odds of classifying completers, while noncompleters were not classified above chance. The interaction between PM and chronicity was statistically significant, but did not increase accurate classification over and above chronicity alone. Completers with more chronic problems had higher levels of PM. PM may act as a buffer against the negative impact of chronicity. It was found that those who completed treatment tended to benefit from treatment.