Mechanical restraint in adolescent psychiatry: A Finnish Register study

Background: Little is known of the use of mechanical restraint in adolescent psychiatry. Aims: To investigate the frequency and features of mechanical restraint in the field of Finnish adolescent psychiatry. Methods: The data were collected in the metropolitan area of Helsinki, Finland, with seven closed and eight open wards for Finnish-speaking 13–17-year-old adolescents. The official restraint reports and the hospital files of the restraint patients from January 2009 to December 2009 were collected and analyzed. Results: Among adolescents hospitalized in closed wards, the 1-year prevalence of mechanical restraint was 9.5%. Among all hospitalized adolescents, the prevalence was 6.9%. The number of mechanically restrained individuals per 100 000 13 to17-year -old Finnish-speaking inhabitants was 57.1. The median duration of the restraint episode was 4 h and 50 min, but almost half of the mechanical restraint episodes lasted 8 h or more. A quarter of restraint episodes were not based on reasons mentioned i...