Premature termination of inpatient psychosomatic rehabilitation - An analysis based on epidemiological data from two different hospital companies

Premature termination of inpatient psychotherapy can have multiple, mostly negative, effects for patients, therapists, clinics, insurance companies, a nd employers, but research regarding inpatient settings is still deficient. The analysis of two sets of data of four different rehabilitation clinics from two different hospital companies (2699 and 2215 patients, respectively ), aimed at possible predictors and outcomes of premature termination. We f ound ratios of premature termination of 8.3% and 14.7%, respectively. Espec ially young patients under 30 years of age and patients with eating and per sonality disorders were more likely to terminate inpatient treatment premat urely. Treatment outcome as rated by therapists was in significantly fewer cases among premature terminators than among successful terminators improve d. The results seem to indicate, that assignment to inpatient psychotherapy can be optimized. For a better understanding of the process of premature t ermination more theory guided prospective and followup studies are necessar y.