The Importance of Patient Preference in Treatment Planning

It seems obvious that patients would do best when they receive the treatment they prefer, but this assumption had not been tested formally in mental health patients. Now, investigators have conducted a systematic review of 34 randomized controlled trials from 9 countries of mental health patients who received a preferred psychosocial therapy versus those who had no choice or who received a nonpreferred treatment. A meta-analysis was performed on 29 studies (n=5294).

Patients who received a preferred psychosocial therapy had a 38% lower dropout rate than comparison participants. They also had stronger therapeutic alliances, with a medium effect size. However, type of treatment assignment was not associated with improvement of depression and a…