Effort expended in seeking treatment as a determiner of treatment evaluation and outcome: The honor of a prophet in his own country

Investigated "effort expended" in seeking psychiatric treatment using 427 "voluntary" admissions to a private, university-affiliated hospital. Effort expended was indicated by 2 measures of distance traveled to the treatment center: actual mileage and "psychological distance." Results indicate that length of hospitalization was related to both distance measures curvilinearly, whereas only psychological distance had an effect on ratings of improvement. Evaluation of the treatment source, while not itself affected by effort, interacted with distance measures in producing various treatment outcomes. Possible interpretations of the findings are discussed. (23 ref.)