Abstract

MALERBI, Fernando K.; SAVOIA, Mariangela G.  and  BERNIK, Marcio A.. Adherence to Social Phobia treatment: a qualitative essay. Rev. bras. ter. comport. cogn. [online]. 2000, vol.2, n.2, pp. 147-155. ISSN 1517-5545.

Adherence may influence research outcomes as well as treatment outcomes. It was found that some patients on a Social Phobia research had a poor adherence to group psychotherapy, some of them having abandoned therapy at different stages. Those data suggested that there were two different groups of patients, some abandoning treatment even before its beginning, and others doing it during its course of 16 weeks. Patients who abandoned therapy were interviewed in order to determine which factors had a negative influence on their adherence. The results showed that those patients had a history of poor adherence to other treatments, a misunderstanding of their treatment outcomes and clinical status, lack of motivation and the attribution of their symptoms to personality features instead of facing them as a disease. Some intervention procedures are recommended in order to improve adherence, such as patients' education on their disease and treatment, providing patients with objective markers of their improvement, therapist's concern on patient's motivation and continuous adherence evaluation, in order to detect those who would most likely abandon treatment.

Keywords : social phobia; adherence; intervention and psychotherapy.

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