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Use of seclusion and restraint in psychiatric patients in Harare Hospital Psychiatric Unit, Zimbabwe: gender
M B Sebit1, S Siziya, S W Acuda
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Zimbabwe Medical School, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Objective:
To examine the frequency and indications for use of seclusion and restraint of psychiatric patients in relation to gender differences and risk factors in Harare Hospital Psychiatric Unit.
Design:
Descriptive study.
Setting:
Harare Central Hospital Psychiatric Unit, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Subjects:
95 consecutively secluded/restrained patients were recruited for the study.
Main Outcome Measures:
The frequency of seclusion and the characteristics of patients secluded/restrained.
Results:
54 (56.8%) patients were males and 41 were females. They had a median (Q1, Q3) age of 30 (Q1, = 24, Q3 = 36) years. Over two thirds (70.5%) of them were aged 35 years or less. The frequency of seclusion and restraint was 8.5% (95% CI 6.9 to 10.1) of the population of 1,115 patients admitted during the study period. The groups (male versus female) differed significantly with respect to marital status; single patients being 4.66 (95% CI 1.17 to 19.96) times more likely to be males when compared to the divorced/separated patients. Male patients were more likely to have been brought by police than by their relatives or friends (OR 3.30; CI 1.19 to 9.73; p = 0.020).
Conclusion:
Seclusion/restraints of psychiatric patients were common in a psychiatric unit. Male patients were more likely to be brought by police. Female patients resorted more to physically assaulting staff/other patients than did male patients.