[Use of restraints before and after the new psychiatric law]

The purpose of this research project was to examine, in retrospect, the effect of certain factors on the incidence of the use of restrains before and after the introduction of the Danish law reform concerning compulsory treatment. Data concerning the use of restraints on four locked wards in the Psychiatric Department of Glostrup Hospital during a six-month period in 1988 were compared with equivalent data from a six-month period in 1991. It was found that the law reform had no statistically significant influence on the incidence of the use of restraints. Factors such as high bed occupancy rate and shortage of staff did not lead to a higher incidence of use of restraint.