"Dropping out" from an adolescent therapeutic group: a study of factors in the patients and their parents which may influence this process.

A significant proportion of all patients offered group therapy "drop out" before any help can be given to them. This process of attrition is likely to be even higher in adolescent groups. This paper considers factors, observable in the initial assessments of adolescents and their families, which might be associated with this process. Two styles of "drop out" were noticed; one appearing to be less destructive than the other to the patient and to the group. A highly significant association was observed between an assessor's feeling that either the adolescent or one of their parental figures had a paranoid personality and a tendency to leave the group in a precipitate and destructive manner. It is suggested that the sort of therapy offered by the group described in this study may not be the treatment of choice for adolescents of this type, and that there are benefits to be gained from assessing the family of an adolescent before he is offered group therapy on his own.