Factors associated with dropout from treatment for eating disorders: a comprehensive literature review | BMC Psychiatry BioMed Central Research article Open Access Factors associated with dropout from treatment for eating disorders a comprehensive literature review Secondo Fassino 1 Andrea Pierò2 Elena Tomba3 and Giovanni Abbate-Daga1 Address 1Eating Disorders Centre Department of Neuroscience University of Turin Via Cherasco 11 10126 Turin Italy 2Mental Health Department ASL TO 4 Mental Health Centre Via Blatta 10 Chivasso 10034 Turin Italy and 3Department of Psychology University of Bologna 40127 Bologna Italy Email Secondo Fassino - Andrea Pierò - Elena Tomba - Giovanni Abbate-Daga - Corresponding author Published 9 October 2009 BMC Psychiatry 2009 9 67 doi l47l-244X-9-67 Received 4 May 2009 Accepted 9 October 2009 This article is available from http l47l-244X 9 67 2009 Fassino et al licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http licenses by which permits unrestricted use distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background Dropout DO is common in the treatment of eating disorders EDs but the reasons for this phenomenon remain unclear. This study is an extensive review of the literature regarding DO predictors in EDs. Methods All papers in PubMed PsycINFO and Cochrane Library 1980-2009 were considered. Methodological issues and detailed results were analysed for each paper. After selection according to inclusion criteria 26 studies were reviewed. Results The dropout rates ranged from to 51 inpatient and from 29 to 73 outpatient . Predictors of dropout were inconsistent due to methodological flaws and limited sample sizes. There is no evidence that baseline ED clinical severity psychiatric comorbidity or treatment issues affect dropout. The most consistent predictor is
