Frustration Tolerance and early drop-out from drug treatment

A high percentage of individuals who begin manipulation of abuse and addiction "drops out" early in the treatment, which then often results in relapse. In a 2005 study unde smoked whether the individual's degree of frustration tolerance can anticipate potential dropouts.

Frustration Tolerance is defined in the study as the individual's ability to tolerate either physical or psychological discomfort ("distress"). The hypothesis was that the degree of frustration tolerance when starting the treatment would anticipate potential dropouts within thirty days. 122 individuals participated in the study which was carried out in an institution for drug treatment in Maryland, USA.

In the results, one finds a link between low mental frustration tolerance and early drop out. There was no correlation between "degree of difficulty" / range of the past year's abuse and early drop out. Nor could see that the range of psychiatric symptoms could be related to early dropout. There does not appear to be a direct link between psychiatric problems and low mental frustration tolerance.

One implication of the study is to resulatet abuse treatment requires tailored to the individual patient to prevent dropouts. One way to do this is to systematically collect patient feedback on treatment layup.