Risk for psychotherapy drop-out in survival analysis: The influence of general change mechanisms and symptom severity.

Dropping out of psychotherapeutic treatment (i.e., the patient ending treatment unilaterally) poses a problem for patients, therapists, and the health care sector.

General change mechanisms in the early treatment phase and their associations with the outcome of cognitive behavioural therapy in patients with different levels of motivational incongruence.

Early general change mechanisms (GCMs) have been shown to be associated with psychotherapy outcome but it remains unclear which specific patients benefit from which GCM. This study explored whether the patients' characteristic motivational incongruence moderates the effect of GCMs in the early treatment phase on the outcome. Three early GCMs (interpersonal experiences, intrapersonal experiences, and problem actuation) were evaluated after five therapy-preparing sessions by patients and therapists.

Early developments in general change mechanisms predict reliable improvement in addition to early symptom trajectories in cognitive behavioral therapy.

General change mechanisms (GCMs) have been shown to predict treatment outcome in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Early changes in GCMs (early-change-GCMs) and in symptom severity were also linked to treatment outcome, but evidence is still limited. We investigated whether early-change-GCMs from patients' and therapists' perspectives in addition to early changes in symptom severity predict treatment outcome.