Association of treatment satisfaction and psychopathological sub-syndromes among involuntary patients with psychotic disorders

Purpose Previous research has shown a link between treatment satisfaction and global psychopathology in different groups of psychiatric patients. However, neither the relationship between treatment satisfaction and the sub-syndromes of global psychopathology nor their temporal ordering have been explored. Methods Participants admitted involuntarily to psychiatric wards in the UK and diagnosed with psychotic disorders (N = 232) were included. Treatment satisfaction and psychopathological sub-syndromes (i.e., manic excitement, anxiety-depression, negative symptoms, positive symptoms) were measured within 1 week and at 1 month after admission. Results Repeated measures ANOVAs showed that higher treatment satisfaction is associated with lower scores on the manic excitement, anxiety-depression and positive symptom sub-syndromes, while no significant association was found for negative symptoms. However, cross-lagged panel analyses showed that treatment satisfaction predicted change only in positive symptoms while none of the paths from the relevant sub-syndromes to treatment satisfaction was significant. Conclusion Treatment satisfaction can be regarded as an antecedent of changes in positive symptoms only. These results underline the importance of examining psychopathological sub-syndromes separately as they may relate differentially to other important correlates of psychoses.