Do patients prefer optimistic or cautious psychiatrists? An experimental study with new and long-term patients

BMC Psychiatry

Research Article

Lauren Greenberg¹  Gonca Ramjaun²  Stefan Priebe²  Nadia Strappelli²  Eugenio Aguglia³  Eleonora Arcidiacono³ 

[1] Pragmatic Clinical Trials Unit (PCTU) Centre for Primary Care and Public Health, Blizard Institute, Yvonne Carter Building, 58 Turner Street, E1 2AB, London, UK;Unit for Social and Community Psychiatry (WHO Collaborating Centre for Mental Health Services Development), Newham Centre for Mental Health, Queen Mary University of London, E13 8SP, London, UK;Università degli Studi di Catania, Azienda Ospedaliera-Universitaria “Policlinico-Vittorio Emanuele” Catania, Presidio “Gaspare Rodolico”, U.O.P.I di Psichiatria Via Santa Sofia 78 9s 100, Catania, Italy;

关键词: Psychiatric treatment;    Treatment expectations;    Pharmacotherapy;    Psychological treatment;    Communication;    Information;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12888-016-1182-1

 received in 2016-05-14, accepted in 2016-12-30,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundPatients seeking treatment may be assumed to prefer a psychiatrist who suggests a new treatment with confidence and optimism. Yet, this might not apply uniformly to all patients. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that new patients prefer psychiatrists who present treatments optimistically, whilst patients with longer-term experience of mental health care may rather prefer more cautious psychiatrists.MethodsIn an experimental study, we produced video-clips of four psychiatrists, each suggesting a pharmacological and a psychological treatment once with optimism and once with caution. 100 ‘new’ patients with less than 3 months experience of mental health care and 100 ‘long-term’ patients with more than one year of experience were shown a random selection of one video-clip from each psychiatrist, always including an optimistic and a cautious suggestion of each treatment. Patients rated their preferences for psychiatrists on Likert type scales. Differences in subgroups with different age (18–40 vs. 41–65 years), gender, school leaving age (≤16 vs. >16 years), and diagnosis (ICD 10 F2 vs. others) were explored.ResultsNew patients preferred more optimistic treatment suggestions, whilst there was no preference among long-term patients. The interaction effect between preference for treatment presentations and experience of patients was significant (interaction p-value = 0.003). Findings in subgroups were similar.ConclusionIn line with the hypothesis, psychiatrists should suggest treatments with optimism to patients with little experience of mental health care. However, this rule does not apply to longer-term patients, who may have experienced treatment failures in the past.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2017