Patients' comments on psychiatric inpatient treatment experiences: patient-therapist relationships and their implications for treatment outcome.

Only few researchers pay systematic attention to what patients may have to say about their treatment experience during psychiatric hospitalization. This study not only delineates the various therapeutic aspects of an open psychiatric inpatient unit based on the patients' comments, but also attempts to correlate the data with the objective outcome of treatment rated clinically by the therapists and independently by the author. Positive patient-therapist relationship has been found to be the most significant factor correlated closely with the treatment outcome. The correlation may support the relevance of the patients' comments regarding subjectively perceived therapeutic benefits vs. objective actual benefits.