Skip to main content
Log in

Patients' comments on psychiatric inpatient treatment experiences: Patient-therapist relationships and their implications for treatment outcome

  • Articles
  • Published:
Psychiatric Quarterly Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Only few researchers pay systematic attention to what patients may have to say about their treatment experience during psychiatric hospitalization.

This study not only delineates the various therapeutic aspects of an open psychiatric inpatient unit based on the patients' comments, but also attempts to correlate the data with the objective outcome of treatment rated clinically by the therapists and independently by the author. Positive patient-therapist relationship has been found to be the most significant factor correlated closely with the treatment outcome. The correlation may support the relevance of the patients' comments regarding subjectively perceived therapeutic benefits vs. objective actual benefits.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Souelem O: Mental patients' attitudes toward mental hospitals.J Clin Psychol 11: 181–185, 1955.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Klopfer WG, Wylie AA, Hillson JS: Attitudes toward mental hospitals.J Clin Psychol 12:361–365, 1956.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Reznikoff M, Brady JP, Zeller WW: The psychiatric attitudes battery: A procedure for assessing attitudes toward psychiatric treatment and hospitals.J Clin Psychol 15:260–265, 1959.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Gynther MD, Reznikoff M, Fishman M: Attitudes of psychiatric patients toward treatment, psychiatrists, and mental hospitals.J Nerv Ment Dis 136:68–71, 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Jones NF, Kahn MW, MacDonald JM: Psychiatric patients' views of mental illness, hospitalization, and treatment.J Nerv Ment Dis 136:82–87, 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Klett SL, Berger DG, Sewall LG: Patient evaluation of the psychiatric ward.J Clin Psychol 19:347–351, 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Allen JC, Barton GM: Patient comments about hospitalization: Implications for change.Compr Psychiatry 17:631–640, 1976.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Eisenthal S., Lazare A: Evaluation of the initial interview in a walk-in clinic.J Nerv Ment Dis 162:169–176, 1976.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Zaslove MO, Ungerleider JT, Fuller MC: How psychiatric hospitalization helps: Patient views vs. staff views.J. Nerv Ment Dis 142:568–576, 1966.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Kotin J, Schur JM: Attitudes of discharged mental patients toward their hospital experiences.J Nerv Ment Dis 149:408–414, 1969.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Goldstein RH, Racy J, Dressler DM, et al: What benefits patients?Psychiatr Q 46:49–80, 1972.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Leonard CV: What helps most about hospitalization?Compr Psychiatry 14:365–369, 1973.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Dowds BN, Fontana AF: Patients' and therapists' expectations and evaluations of hospital treatment.Compr Psychiatry 18:295–300, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Benson R: The function of a psychiatric unit in a general hospital—A five year experience.Dis Nerv Syst 37:573–577, 1976.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Ruffin WC Jr., Coggins DR, Dowis, JL: Milieu and the schizophrenic patient.Arch Gen Psychiatry 12:516–519, 1965.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Robbins LL: Ego psychology and the milieu at the mental hospital.Int Psychiatr Clin 5:65–94, 1968.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Greenley JR: Power process and patient behaviors.Arch Gen Psychiatry 28:683–688, 1973.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Weinstein RM: Mental patient's perceptions of illness etiology.Am J Psychiatry 131:798, 1974.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Rabiner CJ, Lurie A: The case for psychiatric hospitalization.Am J Psychiatry 131:761–764, 1974.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Additional information

The author wishes to thank Dolores Millan, B.A., of the Research Department of the Long Island Jewish-Hillside Medical Center, for her assistance in compiling and evaluating the statistical data.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lee, H.S. Patients' comments on psychiatric inpatient treatment experiences: Patient-therapist relationships and their implications for treatment outcome. Psych Quart 51, 39–54 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01064718

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01064718

Keywords

Navigation