A Comparison of Voluntary and Committed Psychiatric Patients

How patients in New Zealand view community treatment orders

“…Researchers have given more attention to patients' experience of involuntary hospital care. Contrary to what might be expected, some studies have found that compulsory inpatients subsequently hold generally favourable views of their hospitalization and treatment (Gove & Fain, 1977;Edelsohn & Hiday, 1990;Kaltiala-Heino, 1996), and many will later agree it was required (Spence, Goldney, & Costain, 1988;Conlon, Merskey, Zilli, & Fromhold, 1990;Edelsohn & Hiday, 1990;Kaltiala-Heino, 1996;Gardner et al, 1999).…”

Coercion in psychiatric care: clinical, legal, and ethical controversies

“…Despite the methodological challenges, some authors have attempted to examine the clinical and caring implications of coercion. An early study by Gove and Fain [45] concluded that the commitment process did not have long-lasting detrimental effects. More recently, one study has suggested that the degree of perceived coercion did not influence the outcome in terms of improvement in the Global Assessment Scale [6], and another study found that the condition of patients that actually felt coerced improved during hospitalisation [46].…”

A study of enforced treatment in relation to Stone's “thank you” theory

“…Of the 19 who were initially negative to treatment, 14 (73%) said they had benefitted at their discharge. Gove and Fain (1977) compared voluntary and involuntary patients 1 year after discharge: 81% of the involuntary and 75% of the voluntary patients reported they had been helped by the hospitalization.…”