The causes and treatment of psychiatric disorders as seen by patients

Abstract

Etiologic concepts of psychiatric patients are known to have great impact on the course and outcome of their illness but they have been investigated less frequently than their relatives (1). The aim of this study was to deter¬mine the perspectives of patients on causes and treatment of their illness. There are four groups which are consist¬ed of 30 patients suffering from schizophrenia, depression and psychonevrosis patients, plus 30 'normal' volunteers. We applied two questionnaires, one for the attributions on the causes of illness, and one for the treatment. Results showed that, a high percentage of patients in all groups had visited extra-medical persons and places. Besides, we found out that they still believe in esoteric causes, but they search treatment in psychiatry. We concluded that patients (especially psychotics) need to be informed on the causes and the available treatment approaches because they not infrequently attribute to irrelevant issues.