Abstract
Characteristics of 1,012 outpatients completing a 10-week behavioral medicine intervention were compared with 300 dropout outpatients. The Symptom Checklist 90 Revised (SCL-90R) was administered before and after the program.
Compared to dropouts, patients completing treatment tended to be highly educated, married, and gainfully employed; they had significantly lower pre-treatment scores on the SCL-90R somatization, depression, and obsessive-compulsive scales and global severity index. Depression and education significantly discriminated between the two groups through multiple logistic regression analysis. The intervention significantly decreased all the SCL-90R scores among patients completing treatment, but degrees of treatment effects did not significantly differ between education levels. Less educated patients might benefit from preparatory interventions, or from a modified approach to their treatment.
