Procedures
DISORDERS
Ethical approval was obtained from the University of São Paulo ethics committee (CAE 02222012.8.0000.0068) in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Patients were recruited from a tertiary outpatient Mood Disorders Unit, diagnosed according to the current DSM manual version [The study had a high dropout rate of 27% up to W8, 38% up to W12, and 69% up to W24. The main reasons for dropouts were the following: monotherapy (drug-related factor), patient-related variables (economic variable), and physician-related factors (communication and a lack of psychoeducation). Some patients stated that they are already feeling well and no longer require physician appointments, while others stated that they have returned to work and no longer have time to participate in the study. Considering the number of dropouts, we performed an analysis to compare study completers to non-completers. These findings showed no statistical significance (