The Perils of Time-1/Time-2 Psychiatric Research in an Internal Medicine Clinic

Psychiatric research is continuing to expand in the primary care setting. Because of this, we wish to describe our difficulties in completing a Time-1/Time-2 study among patients in an internal medicine, resident-based outpatient clinic. At Time-1, subjects (N= 120) were 34 males and 86 females. Age ranged between 19 and 54 years (M = 36.03, SD = 8.92). Most were Caucasian (91 percent) and had obtained a high school diploma (85 percent), with 18 percent reporting a bachelor’s degree or higher. Each participant was recruited through the clinic receptionist to participate in a study “examining stress and physical symptoms.” Exclusion criteria were cognitive impairment or illness severity that would preclude participation. Participation entailed the onsite completion of a research booklet (about 20 minutes) that contained a demographic inquiry, childhood abuse questionnaire, somatization inventory, depression scale, worry scale, and two self-report measures of borderline personality disorder. Subjects were also asked, “Would you be willing to be contacted for future research?” with response options of “yes” or “no.” At Time-2 (10 months later), we attempted to contact all subjects (N = 98) who acknowledged their willingness to participate in future research for enrollment in a second related project (completion of a research booklet and a 60-minute interview). We initially attempted contact by telephone (28 percent contact with answering machine, only; 10 percent contact with a family member, only; 16 percent telephone repeatedly busy or no answer; 11 percent contacted but declined participation; 8 percent contacted and participated; 25 percent no contact due to death, no telephone, telephone disconnected, or incorrect number). Two months