Citation

Beck JC, Golowka EA. Behav. Sci. Law 1988; 6(4): 559-566.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1988, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/bsl.2370060411

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The authors investigated the attitudes of 104 state hospital patients concerning their own hospitalization and treatment. Sixty patients were reinterviewed at discharge; nearly two-thirds of these were involuntary patients who initially doubted the value of their hospitalization. At discharge, 15 of these involuntary patients had modified their views, perceiving hospitalization as helpful. These patients, in contrast to those who maintained that hospitalization had not been helpful, were younger, diagnosed schizophrenic or affective disorder, and were judged as improved at discharge. The authors discuss the results in relation to Stone's "thank you" theory, and conclude that only when high quality treatment is available for an Axis I disorder should involuntary hospitalizaton be considered as a possible treatment option.

Language: en