Background: Very little information is available regarding the number of compulsory admissions (ca) from psychiatric wards and a&e wards. Nevertheless, the incidence of such admissions seems to be increasing.
Aim: To estimate the incidence of ca and identify the underlying diagnoses of patients in the Psychiatric ward and the a&e ward of the Imelda Hospital in Bonheiden over a 10-year period.
Method: We studied the records of all patients who were compulsorily referred from the psychiatric ward and the a&e ward over the period 2005-2014.
Results: There was an increase in the number of ca from both the the psychiatric and the a&e ward. The procedure for ca was instituted slightly more often for men than for women. Patients in the a&e ward suffered mainly from psychotic disorders and disorders related to substance abuse. Patients in the psychiatric ward had mainly mood and psychotic disorders.
Conclusion: The results closely resemble the data from comparable studies. It was very unusual for patients admitted compulsory from the Psychiatric ward to be suffering from substance-related disorders.