About this Research Topic

Background

Coercion is a controversial topic in psychiatry and can be addressed from several perspectives, including human rights, ethics, mental health law and judicial aspects, governance and health care organization, experiences and opinions of relevant stakeholders, and also from the viewpoint of evidence-based medicine. Research in some of these areas is scarce and sometimes difficult to conduct, and hampered by a lack of clarity of definitions (e.g., the notion of coercion itself) and outcome measures. Ideally, discussions about coercion should be informed by knowledge about effects and side-effects (including personal experiences) of specific coercive measures that are in place, such as involuntary admissions or outpatient commitment. Today, coercive practices vary among countries and regions resulting in differences in epidemiology and outcomes. Crucially, there is a knowledge gap regarding effective ways to prevent coercive measures.

The goal of this Research Topic "Coercion in psychiatry: epidemiology, effects and prevention" is to bring together a series of manuscripts that present recent empirical findings of observational and experimental studies or reviews related to the topic. We strive to get a balanced series of papers from different disciplines using quantitative as well as qualitative data. This can be from different perspectives, including human rights, ethics, mental health law and judicial aspects, opinions of relevant stakeholders, and also from an evidence-based point of view, but always based on (quantitative or qualitative) empirical data.

• Epidemiology of coercion
• (Side) effects of coercive practices-measures (e.g. seclusion, (outpatient) commitment) for patients, significant others and society
• Effects of interventions to prevent coercion
• Comparisons of coercive practices between regions and countries
• Interplay between ethics, development of mental health laws and politics
• Personal experiences of service users and other stakeholders
• Other related papers

Keywords: Coercion, Involuntary admission, Involuntary treatment, Seclusion, Chemical restraint

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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