Psychiatric hospital

Danvers State Hospital, Danvers, Massachusetts, Kirkbride Complex, c. 1893
Niuvanniemi Hospital in Niuva, Finland
McLean Hospital's administration building in Belmont, Massachusetts; the hospital treated several notable New England residents, including Massachusetts governor Nathaniel P. Banks, musician James Taylor, and poet Anne Sexton

Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, or behavioral health hospitals are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative identity disorder, major depressive disorder, and others.

Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some psychiatric hospitals may specialize only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients. Others specialize in the temporary or permanent confinement of patients who need routine assistance, treatment, or a specialized and controlled environment due to a patient's psychiatric disorder. Patients often choose voluntary commitment, but those who psychiatrists believe pose significant danger to themselves or others may be subject to involuntary commitment and involuntary treatment.[1][2] Psychiatric hospitals are sometimes referred to as psychiatric wards/units, psych, wards, or units when they are located in a hospital.

Modern psychiatric hospitals evolved from and eventually replaced the older lunatic asylum. The treatment of inmates in early lunatic asylums was sometimes brutal and focused on containment and restraint.[3][4]

With successive waves of reform, and the introduction of effective evidence-based treatments, most modern psychiatric hospitals emphasize treatment, usually including a combination of psychiatric medications and psychotherapy, that assist patients in functioning in the outside world. Many countries have prohibited the use of physical restraints on patients, which includes tying psychiatric patients to their beds for days or even months at a time,[5][6] though this practice still is periodically employed in India, Japan, and other countries.[7]

  1. ^ "White House Intruder Put in Mental Ward". New York Times. 1 June 1995.
  2. ^ Mahomed, Faraaz; Stein, Michael Ashley; Patel, Vikram (18 October 2018). "Involuntary mental health treatment in the era of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities". PLOS Medicine. 15 (10). Public Library of Science (PLoS): e1002679. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1002679. ISSN 1549-1676. PMC 6193619. PMID 30335757.
  3. ^ "Life Magazine". Archived from the original on 2012-11-30. Retrieved 2011-01-18.
  4. ^ "Life Magazine" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
  5. ^ "Number of patients physically restrained at psychiatric hospitals soars". The Japan Times Online. 9 May 2016.
  6. ^ 長谷川利夫. (2016). 精神科医療における隔離・ 身体拘束実態調査 ~その急増の背景要因を探り縮減への道筋を考える~. 病院・地域精神医学, 59(1), 18–21.
  7. ^ Khandelwal, SudhirK; Deb, KoushikSinha; Krishnan, Vijay (2015). "Restraint and seclusion in India". Indian Journal of Social Psychiatry. 31 (2): 141. doi:10.4103/0971-9962.173294. ISSN 0971-9962.