[Deprivation of liberty in psychiatry after introduction of the new psychiatric law].

This investigation shows that the rate of commitment to mental hospitals in Denmark increased from the year before the introduction of the new Danish psychiatric legislation when it was 24.4 (23.1-25.8) per 100,000 of the population till the year after when it was 28.4 (27.0-29.9) of the population. The increase in the commitment rate may, wholly or partially, be the result of the fact that the deprivation of liberty, which was previously more or less informal, was now registered. The results do not suggest that commitment of non-psychotic patients is employed more frequently than previously. The commitment rates for men and women were found to be identical after introduction of the new legislation. On the basis of data from the closed wards in the Psychiatric Hospital in Arhus, which receives approximately 11% of all committed patients in Denmark, it was found that the total number of admissions where patients were deprived of their liberty was nearly twice that of the number of involuntary admissions in the period immediately after introduction of the legislation. The average duration of involuntary detainment for committed patients was 20 days (1-101 days) and for patients admitted voluntarily but detained involuntarily 10 days (1-104 days). Involuntary detainment of patients admitted voluntarily occurred on an average two days (0-144 days) after admission. Following involuntary admission, significantly more women (51.5%) as compared with men (15.6%) were detained involuntarily whereas men had an excessive risk for deprivation of liberty for more than three days without formal involuntary detainment.