Abstract
Investigating and characterizing the degree and correlates of patient’s trust in their treating psychiatrists across a range of psychiatric disorders is of a great clinical relevance to enhance our therapeutic alliance, which has not been addressed in the literature. In this study, outpatients who visited one of the participating psychiatric clinics in Tokyo, Japan between October and November, 2010 were asked to complete the Trust in Physician Scale (TPS), an 11-item self-report questionnaire. A univariate general linear model was used to examine the effects of the following variables on the TPS total score: age, sex, diagnosis, Global Assessment of Functioning score, educational background, physician’s years of practice as a psychiatrist, duration of treatment with their current psychiatrists, sex concordance between patients and their psychiatrists, and whether patients were older than their psychiatrists. Five hundred and four patients were enrolled (mean ± SD age = 42.8 ± 13.6 years; 176 men; Psychiatric diagnoses (ICD-10): F0 [N = 8], F2 [N = 72], F3 [N = 252], F4 [N = 147], F6 [N = 22]). A duration of treatment with their current psychiatrist of ≥1 year and a duration of their physician’s clinical expertise as a psychiatrist for ≥10 years were associated with a greater degree of patient’s trust in their psychiatrist. Furthermore, patients with a F3 diagnosis showed a significantly higher TPS total score than those with F4. These findings underscore an importance of paying close attention to patients who are relatively new and are not treated by well-experienced psychiatrists in terms of subjective trust. Furthermore, this likely holds more true for patients with neurotic disorders.
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Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge Dr. Koichi Ishii for his valuable advice. We also thank Ms. Takayanagi, Ms. Asano, and Ms. Nanno for their continuous support.
Conflicts of interests
Dr. Uchida has received grants, speaker’s honoraria, or manuscript fees from Pfizer Health Research Foundation, GlaxoSmithKline, Otsuka Pharmaceutical, Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma, Janssen Pharmaceutical, and Pfizer within the past 5 years. Dr. Suzuki has received grants from the Kanae Foundation, Mochida Memorial Foundation, Japanese Society of Clinical Neuropsychopharmacology and Government of Canada Post-Doctoral Research Fellowships, and manuscript fees from Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma and Kyowa Hakko Kirin within the past 5 years. Dr. Watanabe has received grants, or consultant fees from Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen Pharmaceutical, and Pfizer, and received speaker’s honoraria from Astellas Pharma, Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen Pharmaceutical, Meiji, Otsuka Pharmaceutical, Pfizer, and Yoshitomiyakuhin within the past 5 years. Dr. Takeuchi has received speaker’s honoraria or manuscript fees from Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen Pharmaceutical, and Otsuka Pharmaceutical within the past 5 years. Dr. Nakajima has received grants from Inokashira Hospital Research Fund and Pfizer, and speaker’s honoraria or manuscript fees from Astellas, Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen Pharmaceutical, Pfizer and Yoshitomiyakuhin within the past 5 years. Other authors have nothing to disclose.
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Minamisawa, A., Suzuki, T., Watanabe, K. et al. Patient’s trust in their psychiatrist: a cross-sectional survey. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 261, 603–608 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-011-0199-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-011-0199-1