Service users' views of psychiatric treatments

Compared to other types of patients, the views of mental health service users have been attended to infrequently by sociologists. This paper presents quantitative and qualitative data on patients’ views of their psychiatric treatments. The data was derived from a piece of action research conducted by the authors on behalf of the mental health charity MIND. With the exception of anti-depressants, chemotherapy is substantially criticised, as is Electro Convulsive Therapy. Hospital based interventions (whatever their type) receive the poorest endorsement from recipients. Overall, talking treatments are favoured although group therapy is disliked. The data is discussed in the context of other sociological work on the lay perspective.