Reasons for drug-addiction outpatients’ giving up treatment prematurely

Introduction: the difficulties involved in continuing with the drug treatment offered by specialised\r\npublic services lead to a considerable rate of premature abandon. Objective: the aim\r\nof this work is to learn the patients’ reasons for abandoning their addiction treatment prematurely,\r\nand to establish relations with sociodemographic, administrative and clinical factors.\r\nMethod: a transversal, observational and descriptive study, in a pubic therapeutic centre, via a\r\nphone interview of a sample of 92 patients selected with an intentional sampling method. The\r\npatients’ clinical records were consulted in order to compile data on independent variables.\r\nContingency tables were used for qualitative variables and t student or U Mann-Whitney\r\ntests for the comparison of averages. Results: the principal factors for abandoning treatment\r\nwere related to the fact that patients considered that they had improved. Incompatibilities\r\nfor personal reasons and not considering the existence of a problem were also frequently\r\nput forward as reasons for giving up treatment. Discussion: there is a gap between certain\r\npatients’ expectations and the type of treatment offered. There is less adherence when patients\r\nare referred from health services. It is important to adapt initial visits to the patients’\r\nexpectations in order to attempt to improve their adherence, and consequently, the success\r\nof their treatment. In conclusion, the results show the need to reflect on how to improve\r\nthe process of therapeutic assistance until the initiation of the treatment.