Psychiatric in-patients receive fewer greetings cards than other in-patients

AIMS AND METHOD G Greetings cards (wishing patients well) appear less abundant on psychiatric wards than other inpatient facilities. We tested this hypothesis in three cross-sectional surveys of teaching hospitals in Sheffield. RESULTS On each occasion, psychiatric wards contained significantly fewer card recipients (chi(2) test, P< 0.001). Individual recipients in psychiatric wards received significantly fewer cards than recipients in general hospitals (Kruskal-Wallis test, P< 0.05). CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS Although receiving a card might seem a trivial matter, it nevertheless denotes the outcome of an altruistic act, which may be appreciated by its recipient. Psychiatric in-patients receive fewer such acts of kindness than other in-patients. These data concur with other recent reports suggesting that the stigma of mental illness extends to expressions of altruism.