Factors affecting the experience of the initial psychiatric consultation in outpatients with anxiety states

Abstract

The experience of the first consultation was measured by a questionnaire in 42 outpatients with neurotic anxiety tension states. The correlation between this experience and the doctor's level of experience, the sex combinations of doctors and patients and the personality of the patient, as measured by an inventory 1-2 years after the end of the drug study (35 patients completed the inventory), was studied. Patients who had had a more favourable experience had more often been interviewed by doctors with longer psychiatric experience. Female patients tended to report a more favourable experience with male doctors than male patients did. Patients with a less favourable experience deviated more from the norms of the personality inventory with regard to, for instance, passive dependency than patients with a more favourable experience did, but the difference between the groups was not significant.