Effects of Implementing the Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability for Mechanical Restraint in a Forensic Male Population: A Stepped-Wedge, Cluster-Randomized Design.

The assessment and formulation of the risk of violence and other unwanted behaviors at forensic psychiatric facilities have been attempted for decades. Structured professional judgment tools, such as the Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability (START), are among the recent attempts to overcome the challenge of accomplishing these goals. This study examined the effect of implementing START in clinical practice for the most serious adverse events among the target group of severely mentally ill forensic psychiatric inpatients.

A Thorn in the Flesh? Forensic Inpatients in General Psychiatry.

Purpose: To illuminate whether and how taking care of forensic inpatients is experienced as a burden among staff and managers in general psychiatry.

Design And Methods: Qualitative analytical strategies based on interviews and questionnaires.

Findings: The interplay between physical environment, bottlenecks, poor information exchange, lack of knowledge and competences, complex psychopathology, and a vague and therefore uncomfortable task of nursing leads to a focus on criminal offenses rather than mental disorders and an increased risk of brutalization and stigmatization in nursing practices.

Comparing the effect of non-medical mechanical restraint preventive factors between psychiatric units in Denmark and Norway.

Background: The use of mechanical restraint (MR) is controversial, and large differences regarding the use of MR are often found among countries. In an earlier study, we observed that MR was used twice as frequently in Denmark than Norway.

Aims: To examine how presumed MR preventive factors of non-medical origin may explain the differing number of MR episodes between Denmark and Norway.

Mechanical restraint in psychiatry: preventive factors in theory and practice. A Danish-Norwegian association study.

Purpose: To examine how potential mechanical restraint preventive factors in hospitals are associated with the frequency of mechanical restraint episodes.

Design And Methods: This study employed a retrospective association design, and linear regression was used to assess the associations.

Findings: Three mechanical restraint preventive factors were significantly associated with low rates of mechanical restraint use: mandatory review (exp[B] = .

Mental health law in Denmark.

In Denmark, the parliament passed the first Mental Health Act (MHA) in 1938. A new Act was passed in 1989, based on a thorough report from the Ministry of Justice. The 1989 Act emphasised the protection of citizens' legal rights in relation to compulsory admission, detention and treatment in psychiatric hospitals.

The use of electroconvulsive therapy in a cohort of forensic psychiatric patients with schizophrenia.

Background: In Denmark, over 2500 people are in psychiatric treatment in forensic mental health services at any one time, most suffering from schizophrenia. Many of them have illnesses that are resistant to medication. There is evidence of the effectiveness of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for schizophrenia, but not explicitly for this complex forensic group.

Mechanical restraint--which interventions prevent episodes of mechanical restraint?- a systematic review.

Purpose: To identify interventions preventing mechanical restraints.

Design And Methods: Systematic review of international research papers dealing with mechanical restraint. The review combines qualitative and quantitative research in a new way, describing the quality of evidence and the effect of intervention.

[The concept of insanity in Danish penal and mental health codes].

The medical terms insanity and psychosis are used synonymously to describe a condition with substantial changes in the "total" personality and loss of realism. In the 10th revision of the diagnostic classification system ICD-10 (1994) the intention was to replace the term "psychosis" with "psychotic" to indicate the presence of hallucinations and delusions. However, in Danish legislation - most importantly in the penal code and the Mental Health Act - the term "insanity" is still in use.

Treatment with antiparkinson and antidepressant drugs: a register-based, pharmaco-epidemiological study.

Depressive symptoms and major depression are frequent in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, a systematic knowledge about the treatment with antidepressant drugs among PD patients is missing. We estimated the frequency of antidepressant drug treatment in a national sample of persons treated with antiparkinson drugs (APDs).

Parkinson's disease and antidepressant drug treatment: a case-register study.

Unlabelled: We estimated the nationwide prevalence rate of antidepressant drug treatment in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients.

Background: Very few studies exist on the frequency of antidepressant drug treatment in patients with PD.

Method: Patients with a PD diagnosis at first hospital contact were identified and followed for up to 6 years.

Use of antiparkinsonian drugs in Denmark: results from a nationwide pharmacoepidemiological study.

The objective of the present study was to record the use of antiparkinsonian drugs (APD) in Denmark and discuss estimates of the incidence and prevalence rates of Parkinson's disease (PD). The main indication for treatment with APD is idiopathic PD. The use of APD is, therefore, an indicator of the epidemiology of PD and Parkinsonism.