Should patients with mental health issues and their family members be noticed and explained about everything on their mental illness, diagnosis, treatments etc?

For Truth-Telling:

• Most patients want to know. Studies found that most patients would want to know everything about their illness. Though not so sure what happens when they really discover “everything”.
• Make informed decision and consent possible. Only when the patients know the full story that they can make a personally meaningful decision.
• Building trust. If the doctor intendedly hides some information or lie to the patient and the patient finds out later, the patient will less likely to trust the doctor.
• Lying is impractical. Chances are at some points patients are going to find out more through other people or means.
• Avoid incorrect information found. When patients aren’t told enough about their illness or treatment, they may search for it themselves (e.g. google it) and find some information that may not be irrelevant or applicable to them.
• Patients feel respected. Clinicians can always explicitly ask for patients’ preference.

For Information Withholding:

• When everything was explained to patients/family, they may not accept the truth, lose hopes or become demoralised (e.g.” Chances are you may need to depend on medicine for the rest of your life”).
• Some patients may deliberately state that they do not want to know more.
• Patients become too mentally disturbed after knowing the truth that they harm themselves.
• Patients/family feel stigmatized, being labelled as e.g. “schizophrenic”, “manic”, “mentally ill”
• Family giving up their support to the patient knowing that it’s a long journey.