Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatr. Nov 19, 2019; 9(7): 99-106
Published online Nov 19, 2019. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v9.i7.99
Outcomes of administrative involuntary hospitalization: A national retrospective cohort study in Japan
Akihiro Shiina, Aiko Sato, Masaomi Iyo, Chiyo Fujii
Akihiro Shiina, Division of Medical Treatment and Rehabilitation, Chiba University Center for Forensic Mental Health, Chiba 2608670, Japan
Aiko Sato, Masaomi Iyo, Department of Psychiatry, Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba 2608670, Japan
Chiyo Fujii, Department of Community Mental Health and Law, National Institute of Mental Health, Kodaira-shi 1878552, Japan
Author contributions: Shiin A, Sato A, Iyo M, and Fujii C designed the research; Shiina A and Fujii C performed the research; Shiina A and Fujii C analyzed the data; Shiina A wrote the paper.
Supported by a grant awarded to the corresponding author from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare as part of a research project entitled “ Research of the inclusive care for the psychiatric patients discharged from involuntary admission by the prefectural governor’ s order.” The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest concerning the research, authorship, and publication of this article.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by Ethics Committee of the Graduate School of Medicine at Chiba University on June 6, 2016 (No. 237).
Informed consent statement: All responding hospitals expressed their informed consent about usage of the data they provided with resending the interview form anonymously.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest associated with any of the senior author or other coauthors contributed their efforts in this manuscript.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Akihiro Shiina, MD, MSc, PhD, Associate Professor, Research Associate Professor, Division of Medical Treatment and Rehabilitation, Chiba University Center for Forensic Mental Health, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan. shiina-akihiro@faculty.chiba-u.jp
Telephone: +81-43-2227171
Received: May 24, 2019
Peer-review started: May 27, 2019
First decision: August 2, 2019
Revised: August 16, 2019
Accepted: October 14, 2019
Article in press: October 14, 2019
Published online: November 19, 2019
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

In Japan, patients with mental disorder having a risk for harming self or others are hospitalized by the prefectural governor’s order.

Research motivation

We have to know the outcome of patients who were hospitalized involuntarily.

Research objective

To clarify the performance and outcome of the scheme of involuntary hospitalization by the prefectural governor’s order.

Research methods

Retrospective cohort by examining medical record of hospitals accepting involuntary hospitalization.

Research results

A total of 394 subjects were examined. Approximately a fourth at 1 year, and a third at 2 years after the census had unknown prognosis. Approximately a third was identified as good prognosis. Discussion with external specialists before discharge were associated with good prognosis.

Research conclusions

Psychiatric hospitals in Japan have limited ability to track the prognoses of patients who were hospitalized involuntarily by the prefectural governor’s order.

Research perspectives

Constructive discussion with external specialists before discharge is possible to improve the outcome of the patients with mental disorder. To confirm this hypothesis, a prospective cohort study is necessary.