Jukić V, Bamburac J, Dodig G, Jakovljević M
Psychiatric Hospital Vrapce, Zagreb, Croatia.
Coll Antropol. 1997 Jun;21(1):251-8.
Doctor's oath to secrecy is in the basics of patient's trust to doctor, which is a prerequisite of successful medical treatment. The authors tried to find the answers to following questions: a) what is the attitude of psychiatric patients, people who ask for psychiatric help, towards revealing facts about their psychical problems, b) how well are they informed about doctor's oath to secrecy and to what extent does their willingness reach in asking compensation on the court in case their secret was revealed, c) what is the frequency of the so called "institutionalized" revealing of secrets. The research was performed on the sample of 100 male psychiatric patients hospitalized at the University Clinic for Psychiatry and additional 100 persons who asked for help using phone service of Center for crisis conditions at the same clinic. The obtained data showed that 41% of hospitalized psychiatric patients wanted to hide their psychical problems, and considerably higher percentage (74%) of patients expect the doctor's discretion about the problem, although the most of them are not convinced that there will actually be one. Not a single patient has expressed willingness to ask for compensation on the court in case of doctor's breaking the oath to secrecy. About the half of the patients are informed about doctor's oath to secrecy (42%), but almost all of them (39% of cases in our total sample) consider it normal that the information about their illness is given to some institution outside their family. Persons that ask for help by phone want to remain anonymous in 43% of cases, and in almost same percentage (41%) they believe that their secrecy is guaranteed. In the concluding paragraphs, the need for constant consideration and actualization of problem of doctor's oath to secrecy in the complex situation of global social and medical progress is stressed.
医生的保密誓言是患者信任医生的基础，而这种信任是成功治疗的前提条件。作者试图找到以下问题的答案：a）精神科患者（即寻求精神科帮助的人）对于透露其心理问题的事实持何种态度，b）他们对医生的保密誓言了解程度如何，以及倘若其秘密被泄露，他们在法庭上要求赔偿的意愿达到何种程度，c）所谓“制度化”的秘密泄露频率是多少。该研究以在大学精神病诊所住院的100名男性精神科患者以及另外100名使用同一诊所危机状况中心电话服务寻求帮助的人为样本进行。所获数据表明，41%的住院精神科患者想要隐瞒其心理问题，而期望医生对该问题保密的患者比例要高得多（74%），尽管他们中的大多数人并不确信医生实际上会保密。没有一名患者表示愿意在医生违反保密誓言的情况下向法庭要求赔偿。约一半的患者知晓医生的保密誓言（42%），但几乎所有患者（占我们总样本病例的39%）都认为将其病情信息告知其家庭以外的某个机构是正常的。通过电话寻求帮助的人在43%的情况下希望保持匿名，并且几乎相同比例（41%）的人认为他们的秘密会得到保证。在结论段落中，强调了在全球社会和医学进步的复杂形势下，需要不断思考和落实医生保密誓言问题。
