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Premature termination is common among patients treated for depression with either pharmacotherapy or psychotherapy. Yet little is known about factors associated with premature treatment termination among depressed patients.

This study examines predictors of, time to, and reasons for dropout from the 12-week acute phase treatment of nonpsychotic adult outpatients, age 18–75, with chronic major depression who were randomly assigned to nefazadone alone (MED), cognitive behavioral analysis system of psychotherapy alone (CBASP) or both treatments (COMB).

Of 681 randomized study participants, 156 were defined as dropouts. Dropout rates were equivalent across the three treatments. Among dropouts, those in COMB remained in treatment (Mean=40 days) significantly longer than those in either MED (Mean=27 days) or CBASP (Mean=28 days). Dropouts attributed …