Research as an impetus to improved treatment.

The relation between psychiatric research and treatment remains a controversial subject. A psychopharmacological research program implemented in a state psychiatric hospital resulted in a significantly improved treatment milieu. Diagnosis, length of stay, amounts and types of medications administered, legal commitment status, seclusion and restraint time, etc, were targeted as variables with which to measure change in the milieu. The variables showed significant changes, ie, improvement during the research period, as compared with a control period. The research discipline created a more rigorous approach to diagnosis and treatment. This, in turn, created an improved treatment milieu in which the research protocols could be implemented more meaningfully.