Prevalence of Involuntary Hospital Admission Among Patients Referred by Judicial Authorities to A Psychiatric Hospital in Iran

Background: An important group of patients admitted to psychiatric hospitals are patients who are referred by court letters which deprive the physician of authority to make a decision, leading to involuntary hospital admission. One of the medical principles is to pay attention to patients' rights.  Objective: This study aims to investigate the prevalence of involuntary hospital admission in patients referred by judicial authorities to a psychiatric hospital in Iran. Methods: This study was conducted on the medical records of 217 patients referred by judicial authorities to Shafa Psychiatric Hospital in Rasht, Iran in 2018. Their information such as demographic characteristics, referral reasons, criminal history, history of psychiatric disorders, history of hospitalization in a psychiatric hospital, diagnosis, and type of psychiatric disorder were extracted using a checklist. After collecting data, they were analyzed in IBM SPSS v.21 software Results: Most of the patients were male (96.8%) and single (57.6%) living in urban areas (78.8%); 78.3% had a history of hospitalization, 82.5% had a history of mental illness; 94.9% had a diagnosed psychiatric disorder. The most commonly diagnosed psychiatric disorder was schizophrenia (37.5%). The most common reasons for referral were dispatch and hospitalization (44.9%) and the need for treatment (29.6%). There was a significant relationship between the history of psychiatric disorder and criminal history, but the factors of age, education, and employment status had no significant relationship with the history of psychiatric disorders. Conclusion: With just one court letter, we cannot label a person as a mentally-ill patient. The high percentage of the final diagnosis of psychiatric disorders indicates a good agreement between judicial authorities and the medical centers in referring individuals which highlights the need for more communication between them for referring patients.