[Children and adolescents under 18 years of age admitted to a psychiatric department for adults]. / Børn og unge under 18 år indlagt på voksenpsykiatrisk afdeling.

Now and then children and adolescents are admitted as emergencies to adult psychiatric wards. The reasons for these admissions are frequently pronounced aggressiveness, behavioural problems, and threat of suicide or intended suicide. The aim of the study was to describe the cause of admission for those children and adolescents (younger than 18 years) that in the period concerned were admitted as emergencies to the adult psychiatric ward in Frederiksberg, Denmark. During the ten-year period concerned there were 42 emergency admissions. Compulsory measures according to the mental health act were used in one-third of the admissions. Forty percent of the admissions lasted more than one month. An arrangement for treatment after discharge was not achieved in one-third of the admissions. The most common diagnoses were adjustment disorder and conduct disorder. On the basis of this retrospective review the need for a locked adolescent ward is considered to be a relevant part of an emergency psychiatric service. There is an ethical problem in those cases where children and adolescents cannot be motivated for treatment after discharge.

[Involuntary commitment in psychiatry of persons aged 65 and older]. / Frihedsberøvelse i psykiatrien af personer på 65 år og derover.

The aim of the study was to examine the dimensions and the nature of the deprivations of liberty to which psychiatric patients of 65 years of age and older are exposed. The diagnostic pattern of these patients was also investigated. The case records of 97 elderly patients that had been exposed to a deprivation of liberty during the five year period from 1 October 1989 to 30 September 1994 were reviewed. There were 63 compulsory commitments to the psychiatric department in Ballerup during this period. More elderly patients were committed due to a need for treatment (yellow admission papers) than due to their being dangerous to themselves or other people (red admission papers). There were proportionately more compulsory than voluntary commitments among patients of 65 years of age and over than among patients under the age of 65. Elderly women committed for treatment (yellow admission papers) were deprived of their liberty for a longer period than elderly men committed for the same reasons. The most frequent diagnosis on discharge from the hospital was senile dementia. There is a different pattern of deprivation of liberty among elderly psychiatric patients than among those under the age og 65. The legal aspects surrounding the largest group of elderly compulsory commitments have not yet been satisfactorily clarified.

[The appointed guardian--a counsellor of the forensic psychiatric patient?]. / Bistandsvaergen--den retspsykiatriske patients patientrådgiver?

Forensic psychiatric patients who are submitted to a special measure, are according to the new mental health act allowed to complain of certain coercive measures. In contrast to other psychiatric patients forensic patients are not allotted a patient counsellor. Instead these patients must use an appointed guardian if they need assistance in complaining. The forensic files of 51 patients have been reviewed with a focus on the presence of appointed guardians and previous remand prison. In spite of the requirements of the penal code, only two-thirds of the patients had an appointed guardian on the day of registration. Only one third of the patients were allotted an appointed guardian in connection with pronouncement of sentence. More extensive investigations of this problem would be desirable. As the appointed guardian and the patient counsellor are not identically qualified, the forensic psychiatric patient receives inferior assistance if he wishes to complain. The new section in the penal code dealing with appointed guardians will to some extent change this state of things.

[Forensic psychiatric patients--diagnosis, criminality and sanctions]. / Retspsykiatriske patienter--diagnose, kriminalitet og sanktion.

During the last few years the number of persons who in connection with a breach of the penal code have been sentenced to psychiatric treatment has increased considerably. The case records of 38 such psychiatric patients have been reviewed with focus on diagnostic dispersion, patterns of abuse of alcohol and/or drugs and of crime. A majority of the patients (87%) had formerly been in contact with the psychiatric treatment system. At their latest psychiatric contact many (68%) were diagnosed as schizophrenic and were found to be involved in serious abuse of alcohol and drugs. The crimes committed consisted to a large extent of either real or potential injury to other persons. An unexpectedly large number of the patients had for a shorter or longer time been detained in custody. The examined criminal psychiatric clientele constitutes a strained group with a serious psycho-pathology and with a high frequency of alcohol or drug abuse. More extensive investigations of these patients and possibly also of the effects of their pre-trial detention would be desirable.