The need of qualitative research in psychiatry

The authors present basic information about qualitative research along with its theoretical frame as a useful approach in the study of many issues in the area of psychiatry and psychotherapy. According to the authors, the quantitative methodology – dominant in psychiatry nowadays – seems insufficient to address all issues to be studied in this area. After a short introduction of the theoretical background of qualitative research, the authors present methods of collecting and analysing qualitative data and possible ways of using them in practice. In psychiatry, there are many complex psychotherapeutic methods used, their effects depending on many conditions, such as feelings and actions of patients and therapists. Hence, qualitative methods – which enable researchers to study the complexity of human interactions – seem to be well suited for psychiatric research. However, the authors conclude, the reason for choosing one or the other method should be practical rather than ideological; the methods indeed very often complete, rather than exclude each other, in research practice.