BACKGROUND: The article addresses the hypothesis that early telephone intervention for psychiatric outpatients starting antidepressant treatment would increase compliance with pharmacological treatment and retention time in the study, and thus allow for a more favourable clinical outcome. METHODS: The study focuses on 131 depressed outpatients who participated in a study aiming to obtain full remission. Patients who benefited from three early structured telephone interventions (n=81) were compared with participants who benefited from the usual care (n=50) with no clinical contact before the first clinical assessment at 2 weeks. RESULTS: The intervention proved to have no significant effect on treatment adherence, attrition rate, exclusion rate for adverse events or improvement of depression severity. It was nevertheless associated with increased retention time in the present study. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that motivational phone calls may reinforce adhesion in psychiatric patients and provide early opportunities to adapt treatment to individual needs. CLINICAL IMPLICATION: These results suggest that motivational phone calls may reinforce adhesion in psychiatric patients and provide early opportunities to adapt treatment to individual needs.