Selection and Treatment of Psychiatric Outpatients

Which Neurotic Patients Do Psychiatrists Treat?

“…Patients over 50 years old were less likely to be offered continuing treatment. This accords with the findings of Brown & Kosterlitz (1964) in the USA.…”

Client factors related to premature termination of psychotherapy.

“…The second significant variable corroborates Brown & Kosterlitz's (1964) findings that psychotics are less often premature terminators than would be expected according to the population averages. A person diagnosed as being psychotic is generally more impaired and uncomfortable than a nonpsychotic; thus this person may be more likely to want treatment, to be encouraged to seek and stay with it, and the therapist is more likely to attempt to keep this person in therapy.…”

“…The first is obviously related to the diagnosis of psychosis, and the reasons for their tendency to be remainers are similar to those stated above. The second finding, that those with a presenting problem in the area of interpersonal relationships are more likely to be terminators, is rather surprising since this is a direct contradiction of an earlier study (Brown & Kosterlitz, 1964) in which those with this presenting problem tended to stay in treatment longer. One explanation might be that interpersonal problems often tend to be crisis situations and clients may terminate when they feel the crisis has passed, although the therapist views the situation as unresolved.…”

Which Neurotic Patients Are Treated With Psychotherapy?

“…Rosenthal & Frank, 1958;Ursano & Dressl6r, 1974) reported a preference for female patients to be taken on for psychotherapy. Given that there are also inconsistent findings regarding whether males or females are more likely to discontinue therapy prematurely (Brown & Kosterlitz, 1964;Reder & Tyson, 1980), sex difference in the initiation and continuation of psychotherapy seems to be an area worthy of further research.…”