Sharing the responsibilities: the roles of the government.

Developments in psychiatry have been steered by a number of factors influencing decisions taken by the politicians. Some of the more typical factors that could be mentioned are: political attitudes; trend phenomena in the population; economic aspects; and evidence-based knowledge. Bearing in mind the results of developments in psychiatry during the last decades, psychiatrists are encouraged to live up to their responsibility by focusing on scientific results, when giving their advice to politicians. Hopefully political initiatives will, in the future, primarily be based on evidence about psychiatric treatment.