RESUMEN
There is a growing interest in the measurement of patient satisfaction as a source for improving the health of population globally but not regionally. The purpose of this study was to describe patient satisfaction among outpatients attending the general adult psychiatric clinics, Bahrain. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire from 300 outpatients between June and October 2000. The results of the study showed that the overall patient satisfaction was high. The highest satisfaction was in areas related to relationships with staff and lowest with psycho education, physical environment items such as parking, toilets and waiting area. In conclusion, despite the high degree of satisfaction for the care delivered in the outpatient clinics, providing information and responding to patient needs were a source of dissatisfaction specially by the more educated and those who received a neurotic type of diagnosis. In the future, attention should be paid to improve ways of psycho education in order to further enhance patient satisfaction