Factors associated with noncompliance with psychiatric outpatient visits

Adherence to recommended services is essential for long-term effectiveness of ambulatory treatment programs, hut factors associated with such adherenc e are not securely established. We evaluated attendance at 896 scheduled ps ychiatric clinic visits for 62 patients at a major psychiatric teaching hos pital, Visit adherence was found to be significantly higher among patients in an acute stage of illness, those with a personality disorder, those with a post-high-school education, and those living alone. Adherence was also h igher when visits were routinely scheduled, when the intervisit interval wa s shorter, and when the visit entailed psychotherapy rather than pharmacoth erapy.