Involuntary commitment in Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Denmark.

Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Denmark have common legislation and registration for involuntary commitment. Commitment rates were calculated based on information from the Danish psychiatric register for 1984-1988. Direct standardization with the Danish male and female population as a standard population (1984-1988) was carried out to evaluate differences in rates. An increased risk of commitment was found in Greenland, where the crude commitment rate was 43.5 commitments per 100,000 inhabitants. The commitment rate on the Faroe Islands was 19.2 per 100,000 and 24.2 per 100,000 in Denmark. The relative risk of commitment in Greenland vs Denmark was 2.0 (1.6-2.4) and increased to the same extent for both sexes. Young men constituted a high-risk group for commitment in Greenland. Males between 15 and 34 years accounted for 55% of the total number of commitments in Greenland. The high relative commitment risk in Greenland is related to higher homicide rates, lower psychiatric bed availability, reduced access to psychiatric treatment, small settlements and increased alcohol consumption and violence than in Denmark.