AIM: to examine the frequency of involuntary hospitalisation according to PsychKG (german law concerning psychiatric practice) in a comprehensive region with good overall medical/psychiatric services, over the course of a decade. METHOD: All cases of compulsory admission into Psychiatric Clinics within the greater Göttingen area (Central Germany) were evaluated every two years between 1988 and 1998. RESULTS: The number of involuntarily hospitalised patients doubled within the ten years of evaluation although the density of population remained stable and the already good quality out-patient treatment experienced further improvement. However, the total number of in-patients also doubled during this time, so that the proportion between compulsory admission and voluntary hospitalisation remained the same. CONCLUSION: Similar to other regions, the increase in compulsory admissions is considerable. The development towards shorter treatments and an increasing frequency of re-hospitalisation seem to have no significant influence on the courses of disease or on future pathological crises of the patients in question. It is possible that the expected lack of a decreasing rate of compulsory admission is partly caused by behaviour on the part of the physician.
AIM: to examine the frequency of involuntary hospitalisation according to PsychKG (german law concerning psychiatric practice) in a comprehensive region with good overall medical/psychiatric services, over the course of a decade. METHOD: All cases of compulsory admission into Psychiatric Clinics within the greater Göttingen area (Central Germany) were evaluated every two years between 1988 and 1998. RESULTS: The number of involuntarily hospitalised patients doubled within the ten years of evaluation although the density of population remained stable and the already good quality out-patient treatment experienced further improvement. However, the total number of in-patients also doubled during this time, so that the proportion between compulsory admission and voluntary hospitalisation remained the same. CONCLUSION: Similar to other regions, the increase in compulsory admissions is considerable. The development towards shorter treatments and an increasing frequency of re-hospitalisation seem to have no significant influence on the courses of disease or on future pathological crises of the patients in question. It is possible that the expected lack of a decreasing rate of compulsory admission is partly caused by behaviour on the part of the physician.
Authors: Knut Hoffmann; I S Haussleiter; F Illes; J Jendreyschak; A Diehl; B Emons; C Armgart; A Schramm; G Juckel Journal: Ann Gen Psychiatry Date: 2017-01-25 Impact factor: 3.455