[The use of therapeutic isolation and confinement in psychiatry. A prospective study]

Despite recent developments in psychopharmacology and a better understanding of agitation patterns in psychiatric patients, the use of seclusion and restraint procedures remains a matter of daily practice. Little or no time is spent on its teaching in a formal way. There is almost no literature on these issues, and it has grown only since legal procedures initiated by patients, which forced practitioners to spend some time analysing these methods. Facing this problem, we realized a prospective study at the CHS de la Savoie, in Chambéry, so as to clarify the current modes of these procedures. This study was led among 460 secluded patients, during one year. 11 data were studied, such as the duration of the seclusion, the reason and the medical history, the desire of the patient to be liberated ... The review or awareness of certain variables may give clinicians a better perspective on the use of procedures which, unfortunately, continue to be the cause of deaths in psychiatric practice.