Tvangsindlæggelser i Danmark og Sverige Forskellen i hyppighed belyst ved sammenligning af 2 lokalområder i de respektive lande

Christensen EM, Bengtsson A, Kramp P, Rafaelsen OJ. Involuntary commitments in Denmark and Sweden. The differences in frequency illustrated by comparison of two local areas in the two countries.Involuntary commitment to a psychiatric institution is some ten times more frequent in Sweden than in Denmark. Three factors are probably of importance to explain this difference: 1) In Sweden patients may be involuntarily committed to a psychiatric institution for social reasons, and this indication accounted for 57% of the Swedish cases investigated. In Denmark patients cannot be involuntarily committed for social reasons. 2) In Sweden patients may be discharged on probation. In such a probation period a patient may be returned to the psychiatric institution in accordance with the hospital psychiatrist's decision. Forty per cent of the Swedish patients were readmitted in this manner. 3) In Sweden patients may be involuntarily committed even if they do not resist hospitalization; 74% of the Malmo patient sample di...