Therapeutic alliance and dropout in patients with borderline pathology receiving residential dialectical behavior therapy.

Background: This study focused on the impact of therapeutic alliance on therapy dropout in a naturalistic sample of patients with borderline pathology receiving dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) in a residential setting. We assumed that low therapeutic alliance shortly after admission would be associated with elevated dropout.

Methods: 44 participants with borderline pathology (≥ 3 DSM-5 borderline personality disorder criteria) in a residential DBT program completed a quality assurance questionnaire set assessing demographic information, pretreatment psychopathology and therapeutic alliance during the first seven days of their residential stay. Predictors of dropout were investigated using binary logistic regression analyses.

Results: The dropout rate was 34.1% (n = 15). In binary logistic regression analyses with variables covering demographic and clinical characteristics, comorbidities and childhood trauma history, only the therapeutic alliance significantly predicted dropout (z = -2.371, p = .018).

Conclusions: This study supports the importance of therapy process variables, here the therapeutic alliance at the beginning of treatment, as predictors of therapy dropout in borderline pathology. If this finding is replicated, it shows the potential importance of monitoring the therapeutic relationship throughout the therapeutic process.

Clinicaltrials: gov Identifier: NCT05289583, retrospectively registered on March 11, 2022.