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Adverse Impact of Coercive Treatments on Psychiatric Inpatients’ Satisfaction with Care

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Abstract

Consumers’ satisfaction with inpatient mental health care is recognized as a key quality indicator that prospectively predicts functional and clinical outcomes. Coercive treatment experience is a frequently cited source of dissatisfaction with inpatient care, yet more research is needed to understand the factors that influence consumers’ perceptions of coercion and its effects on satisfaction, including potential “downstream” effects of past coercive events on current treatment satisfaction. The current study examined associations between objective and subjective indices of coercive treatments and patients’ satisfaction with care in a psychiatric inpatient sample (N = 240). Lower satisfaction ratings were independently associated with three coercive treatment variables: current involuntary admission, perceived coercion during current admission, and self-reported history of being refused a requested medication. Albeit preliminary, these results document associations between patients’ satisfaction ratings and their subjective experiences of coercion during both current and prior hospitalizations.

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Acknowledgments

The views expressed in this manuscript are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Department of Veteran Affairs or United States Government. The authors have no competing interests. Partial support for this research was provided a by grant to Marian I. Butterfield, from the Department of Veteran Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, through a VA Merit Review Grant PCC 02-054 and an Advanced Research Career Development Award (RCD 00-019). Dr. Butterfield died on June 26th, 2006 after a courageous five-year battle with breast cancer. The authors would like to acknowledge her work on the research described in this report and celebrate her many significant contributions to the field of psychiatry and to the care of our nation’s veterans. Additional support for this manuscript was provided by a VA Research Career Development Award (RCD-06-020) and Associate Investigator Award (AIA 04-025) to J.L.S., a VA Research Career Development Transition Award to C.E.M., and the Mid-Atlantic Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC). M. W. was supported by an HSR&D Senior Research Scientist award from Department of Veterans Affairs (RCS 91-408).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care, VISN 6 MIRECC, Bldg 6, 508 Fulton Street, Durham, NC, 27705, USA

    Jennifer L. Strauss

  2. Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care, Durham, NC, USA

    Jennifer B. Zervakis, Karen M. Stechuchak, Maren K. Olsen, Morris Weinberger, Patrick S. Calhoun, Marian I. Butterfield & Eugene Z. Oddone

  3. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Jennifer L. Strauss, Jeffrey Swanson, Marvin S. Swartz, Christine E. Marx, Patrick S. Calhoun, Daniel W. Bradford & Marian I. Butterfield

  4. Mid-Atlantic Mental Illness Research Educational and Clinical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Jennifer L. Strauss, Christine E. Marx, Patrick S. Calhoun & Marian I. Butterfield

  5. Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Maren K. Olsen

  6. Department of Health Policy and Management, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Morris Weinberger

  7. Mental Health Service Line, Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Christine E. Marx

  8. Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery Center, Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Daniel W. Bradford

  9. Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

    Eugene Z. Oddone

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  1. Jennifer L. Strauss
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  2. Jennifer B. Zervakis
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  3. Karen M. Stechuchak
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  4. Maren K. Olsen
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  5. Jeffrey Swanson
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  6. Marvin S. Swartz
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  7. Morris Weinberger
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  8. Christine E. Marx
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  9. Patrick S. Calhoun
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  10. Daniel W. Bradford
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  11. Marian I. Butterfield
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  12. Eugene Z. Oddone
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jennifer L. Strauss.

Additional information

Marian I. Butterfield: Deceased.

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Strauss, J.L., Zervakis, J.B., Stechuchak, K.M. et al. Adverse Impact of Coercive Treatments on Psychiatric Inpatients’ Satisfaction with Care. Community Ment Health J 49, 457–465 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-012-9539-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-012-9539-5

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