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Pre-Treatment Expectations in Clients: Impact on Retention and Effectiveness in Outpatient Substance Abuse Treatment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2011

Katja Kuusisto ,
Vesa Knuuttila  and
Pekka Saarnio
Katja Kuusisto*
Affiliation:
University of Tampere, Finland
Vesa Knuuttila
Affiliation:
University of Tampere, Finland
Pekka Saarnio
Affiliation:
University of Tampere, Finland
*
Reprint requests to Katja Kuusisto, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Tampere, Tampere 33014, Finland. E-mail: katja.n.kuusisto@uta.fi
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Abstract

Background: Common factors are important for the therapy outcome and also mediate the specific factors of therapy. As one of the common factors, client's expectations towards treatment have been understudied. Aims: The aim was to examine the pre-treatment expectations of outpatient substance abuse treatment clients (N = 327, 111 females, 216 males) and its impact on retention, effectiveness and satisfaction at 6-month follow-up. Method: Dependent variables included the clients’ attitudes towards the twelve-step principles and participation, medical treatment and therapists’ role. Results: An emphasis on the importance of medical treatment at baseline predicted dropping out. Similarly, it predicted a lower percent days abstinent (PDA6) at 6 months follow-up in comparison to those who did not consider medical treatment important for recovery. Percent days abstinent increased with a more positive attitude to mutual support. At follow-up, those who had assessed the therapist's role in recovery to be most important at the baseline were most satisfied with the treatment. Conclusions: The client's pre-treatment expectations have an impact on treatment retention and effectiveness. Further effort should be made to study how clients’ image of treatment could be improved and also how the commitment of the clients with multiple problems could be improved.

Keywords

Substance abuse treatmentexpectationsretentioneffectivenesstreatment satisfactionoutcome
Type
Empirically Grounded Clinical Interventions
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 39 , Issue 3 , May 2011 , pp. 257 - 271
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2011

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