Skip to main content
  • Poster presentation
  • Open access
  • Published:

Use of seclusion and restraint, and its relationship to the patient's gender – a retrospective multi-center study from three departments' of acute emergency psychiatry

Background

Previous studies show inconsistent findings about gender association with seclusion and restraint. A study from an acute emergency department showed that the number of women secluded and restrained were lower than for the men. But among repeatedly secluded and restrained patients the women were in the majority and they also had more episodes with seclusion and restraint.

Methods

In an ongoing multi-center study conducted in three acute emergency psychiatry institutions, we retrospectively examine data from seclusion and restraint protocols and data about all the patients admitted over a two-year period. We note how many patients have had episodes with seclusion and restraint. We also note duration/time/date of each episode and the reason given for using seclusion and restraint and the relationship by gender. Each patient is only counted once in this period, controlling for readmission.

Results

Preliminary findings from one of the departments replicate findings in the study from the 1994 – 1999 [1], that the total number of men secluded and restrained was higher than that of women, but among repeatedly secluded and restrained patients the women were in the majority. At the congress we will present results from all three departments.

Conclusion

Our data indicate that the use of seclusion and restraints varies by gender and show the need to study not only the rate of seclusion and restraint, but also the episodes of seclusion and restraint by gender.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Knutzen, M. Use of seclusion and restraint, and its relationship to the patient's gender – a retrospective multi-center study from three departments' of acute emergency psychiatry. BMC Psychiatry 7 (Suppl 1), P7 (2007). https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1186/1471-244X-7-S1-P7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1186/1471-244X-7-S1-P7

Keywords