[7] The shop's decor also has a psychiatric institution theme: it includes a straitjacket and padded room, an eating area called "Group Therapy", and the staff wear lab coats or nurse uniforms.

[12] Author Pete Earley compared the shop's gimmick to the practice of "mak[ing] gay men and lesbians the butt of jokes, as well as blacks, other minorities, and persons who were callously labeled as 'retards, gimps and cripples'".

[2][15] The business also intended to use part of its profits to support the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression,[2][15] although the organization did not accept the donation.

[12] The store's owners and supporters argued that Psycho Donuts has a First Amendment right (specifically, the right to free speech) to choose the name of their business and products.

[16] In late August that year Zweigoron, having become the sole owner of the shop, announced that he would remove the straitjacket and padded cell from the shop's interior, and changed the name of two donuts on the menu, "Bipolar" (changed to "Mood Swing") and "Massive Head Trauma" ("Headbanger").