Introduction: The failure to the first regular appointments in Mental Health Centres represent a problem in economic terms for the institution, a waste of time for the professional person and an increase in the waiting list in the centre with the subsequent prejudice for the patient.
Methodology: In this investigation we study the influence of some sociodemographic (sex and age) and referral variables (geographic area, previous contact in the centre, referral reason and diagnostic by the family physician) in a group of 235 failing subjects compared with a group of 300 attending subjects.
Results: Results show that there's no relationship between the variables in terms of sex or age; that there are differences related to the geographic area from where they are referred and that the patients with a previous contact in the centre (more than one year) fail less than those who never attended.