Patient Satisfaction with Psychiatric Treatment of Menopausal Women in a Multidisciplinary Women??s Midlife Center

Abstract

Menopause may be associated with new onset psychiatric symptoms or may exacerbate or heighten preexisting psychiatric problems in women. We present a model center for midlife women, with a multidisciplinary approach to treating this population, and patients' perceptions of satisfaction with treatment received during referral visits to an outpatient psychiatry clinic. In this study, 59 patients were referred from their primary care provider at the midlife center for evaluation by a faculty psychiatrist in an outpatient setting. A brief telephone interview was administered within 1 year of initial evaluation, using items from the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire-8 (CSQ-8) to assess patient satisfaction with psychiatric services received during the referral visits. Findings were based on responses provided by 50 women who were successfully contacted by telephone for the follow-up assessment. For this sample, the mean total client satisfaction score was 27.8 (s = 5.4) of a possible score of 32, which indicated that most women who were referred for psychiatric services reported a positive experience with the services provided by outpatient psychiatrists and reported being very satisfied with their treatment. We feel that this model center represents a unique way to identify and treat psychiatric disorders in a patient population that may be at high risk for depression and other psychiatric disorders.