Patient trust in psychiatrists

Abstract

Background General medical and primary care patients have been shown to trust their doctors but the same is not known for mental health patients. Primary objective To compare patients’ trust in psychiatrists with general practitioners and study the effects of patient age, gender, time knowing doctor, hospital admission and compulsory detention. Methods Postal survey of mental health patients in Cornwall using ‘Trust in Physician’ rating scales and questionnaires regarding the secondary measures. Results Mental health patients had good levels of trust in psychiatrists and GPs and that neither admission nor detention under the mental health act altered degree of trust. Male patients trusted their psychiatrists less than females. Conclusions this work provides evidence that psychiatrists, like GPs, are trusted and that this aspect of the doctor–patient relationship is not impaired by hospital admission and compulsory detention. Further work may be needed on developing trust with male psychiatric patients. Declaration of interest none. Funding detailed in “Acknowledgements”.