Predictors of the use of restraint and seclusion in public psychiatric hospitals

The authors report on the replication of a 1984 study of the use of restraint and seclusion at psychiatric hospitals operated by the New York State Office of Mental Health. The results of this study confirm the earlier finding that the hospital itself was the greatest predictor of the use of these interventions, when controlling for patient characteristics associated with the use of restraint and seclusion, such as age, gender, ethnicity legal status, length of stay, and diagnosis. Recent and current attention to these findings has already resulted in reduced rates at high-rate New York State facilities.