TY - JOUR
PY - 2016//
TI - A study of the connection between coercive measures used in a closed acute psychiatric ward and the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients involved
JO - Tijdschrift voor Psychiatrie
A1 - Miedema, N.
A1 - Hazewinkel, M. C.
A1 - van Hoeken, D.
A1 - van Amerongen, A. S.
A1 - de Winter, Remco F. P.
SP - 434
EP - 445
VL - 58
IS - 6
N2 - BACKGROUND: Admission at a closed acute psychiatric ward is a severe and possibly life changing experience for a patient. Sometimes admission is accompanied by coercive measures. Despite the impact that these measures may have on the patient, very little research has been published concerning this patient population.
AIM: To obtain insight into the connection between the socio-demographic characteristics of patients admitted to a closed acute psychiatric ward and the coercive measures to which they were subjected.
METHOD: For a year a database was compiled to give us information about the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of patients admitted to a closed acute psychiatric ward in The Hague in the Netherlands. This record enables us to analyse the relation between these characteristics and coercive measures.
RESULTS: The majority of patients admitted were male, single, childless and were unemployed or not in education but were receiving some form of welfare payment. 33% of admissions were in fact re-admissions. 20% of the admissions/re-admissions were secluded during the admission procedure - for the following reasons: symptoms of a psychotic disorder, a manic episode and/or aggression. Secluded patients were younger and had more serious psychiatric problems; they functioned less well and had been in hospital longer than patients who had not been secluded upon admission. During the admission procedure 14% of patients received emergency medication.
CONCLUSION: These results have given us more insight into the connection between the use of coercive measures in psychiatry and the socio-demographic characteristics and clinical characteristics of the patients involved. This information could serve as reference material for future research.
Language: nl
LA - nl SN - 0303-7339 UR - http://dx.doi.org/ ID - ref1 ER -