The effects of progress monitoring on subsequent readmission to psychiatric care: a six-month follow-up

Abstract

Background: Monitoring patient progress and providing feedback to clinicians and patients about progress during therapy reduce depressive symptoms at treatment completion. However, the effects of feedback on patient outcomes following treatment completion are unknown. Accordingly, the current study aimed to examine the effect of feedback on readmission to psychiatric hospital following completion of a group psychotherapy program.

Method: This naturalistic historical follow-up study compared the risk of readmission to a psychiatric hospital for two patient cohorts examined by Newnham et al. (2010a,b); the first cohort received feedback (n=408) during a group psychotherapy program, whereas the second cohort did not receive feedback (n=439). The sample included inpatients and day patients, with primarily depressive and anxiety disorders who routinely completed the World Health Organization's Wellbeing Index.

Results: Feedback was associated with fewer readmissions over the six months following completion of the therapy program for patients who, at the point of feedback, were on track to make clinically meaningful improvement by treatment termination.

Discussion: The findings suggest feedback could result in cost saving and is associated with improved outcomes following treatment completion for patients deemed on track during therapy.