Missed psychiatric appointments: who returns and who stays away.

Objective: This study investigated reasons for missed psychiatric appointments, rescheduling of appointments, adverse outcomes, and the association of specific diagnoses and treatments with missed appointments. Method: A prospective survey covering all individual outpatient visits to seven mental health clinic psychiatrists was conducted during a 3-month period in 1991. Of the 1,620 scheduled visits, 142 (8.8%) were missed, representing 130 separate patients. For each missed appointment, the psychiatrist involved completed a questionnaire on the type of visit, the patient's DSM-III-R diagnosis, the reason for missing the appointment, the date of patient recontact, and adverse outcome, if any