title: Adolescent and therapist perception of barriers to outpatient substance abuse treatment.
abstract: Attrition is one of the most vexing problems for the effective delivery of behavioral health services. Most prior studies focus on patient demographics and psychopathology factors predicting dropout. We examined patient and therapist post-treatment reports of barriers to attending treatment. Six hundred adolescents and their therapists completed the Perceived Barriers to Treatment scale (PBT) at discharge from a brief substance abuse intervention. After adjusting for covariates, results suggest that perceived barriers, in particular, practical obstacles, lack of treatment readiness, relevance, and compatibility, are related to sessions attended. Shifting to a more patient-centered approach for understanding treatment retention is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY 11203, USA. Janell.Mensinger@downstate.edu
authors.forename: Janell Lynn
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Mensinger
authors.forename: Guy S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Diamond
authors.forename: Yifrah
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kaminer
authors.forename: Matthew B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Wintersteen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D002189:Marijuana Abuse / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D009042:Motivation; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic; D010352:Patient Dropouts / Q000523:psychology*; D011614:Psychotherapy, Brief; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires