Predictors of psychotherapy outcome in adolescents and young adults treated in routine clinical care

A substantial proportion of adolescents treated with psychotherapy does not show improvements in mental symptoms, for reasons which are still not well understood. Aims of the study were to evaluate lack of recovery, defined according to external reference values, and change in symptomatology of a group of adolescents and young
adults treated with psychotherapy in routine clinical care, as well as to identify sociodemographic, clinical and therapeutic characteristics that can negatively influence the treatment outcome. The study population was composed
of 148 subjects, treated at a Psychotherapy Center, who filled in a questionnaire for the assessment of psychological symptoms (CBA-VE) before start of psychotherapy (T0), right after (T1), and, limited to 94 patients, six months after
its end (T2). Age, gender, diagnostic group, symptom severity, drug therapy, number and frequency of psychotherapy sessions, were examined as possible predictors of lack of recovery and of improvement in mental symptoms between
pre- and post-treatment, through multivariate Poisson robust regression and multiple regression models, respectively. A significant improvement of mental symptoms occurred both at T1 and T2. However, higher severity of symptoms at T0
increased lack of recovery, whereas it was associated with greater improvement of symptoms, indicating that the impact of psychotherapy, in terms of reduction of symptoms, would be stronger when severity is higher.