Follow-Along Study

Since 1992, the Austen Riggs Center has been conducting an ongoing, naturalistic, longitudinal Follow-Along Study of treatment outcome in its patients. The Principal Investigator is J. Christopher Perry, M.D., M.P.H. of the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal. Eric M. Plakun, M.D., director of admissions and professional relations at Riggs, is the Co-Principal Investigator. The study is supported through funds allocated by the Center’s Board of Trustees; grants from the International Psychoanalytic Association, and the Jeffrey Gutin Fund of the Suicide Prevention Partnership; and funds from private individuals.

The Follow-Along Study examines change in patients during and after treatment at the Center using reliable measures of diagnoses, symptoms and improvement. In addition, the study assesses the nature of change in basic psychological phenomena, such as defense mechanisms (ways of coping) and core emotional conflicts.

The study also explores treatment outcome as a function of diagnosis, length of treatment and other variables. The results will address such questions as whether there is a demonstrable benefit of longer-term treatment that continues after symptoms have subsided and whether there is measurable character change (i.e., change in a person’s ingrained ways of coping with emotional problems and resolving underlying conflicts). Several presentations have already been made of preliminary study data at professional meetings in the U.S. and overseas. The first main aims paper from the study, entitled "Improvement and recovery from suicidal and self-destructive phenomena in treatment-refractory disorders" (authors Perry, J.C., Fowler, J.C., Bailey, A., Clemence, A.J., Plakun, E.M., Zheutlin, B., & Speanburg, S.) has been accepted for publication and is currently in press at the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease.

For more information about the Follow-Along Study, contact Research Coordinator Dr. Jill Clemence, at (413) 931-5238.