[How does a general hospital psychiatric unit deal with violent patients? The border between community psychiatric services and forensic psychiatric hospitals].

ISSUE

In psychiatric and psychotherapeutic clinics that are responsible for supplying care for a region, how often are patients transferred to forensic psychiatric hospitals? Is there a tendency to "send off" aggressive or threatening patients as quickly as possible?

METHOD

In the psychiatric and psychotherapeutic clinic responsible for the Berlin's Neukölln district, for one year (2000) all patients who committed a severe criminal offence immediately before or during their in-patient treatment were registered for observation in 2000. The steps of investigation and further legal consequences were recorded.

RESULTS

During the period of observation, 0.1 percent of the patients were transferred from the clinic to a forensic psychiatric hospital. Weeks or months after their regular release, 0.4 percent of the patients were committed to a forensic department. The court ordered an ambulant psychiatric evaluation for 0.5 percent of the patients.

CONCLUSION

Only a few patients were transferred to forensic psychiatric hospitals. A tendency to "send off" aggressive patients as soon as possible, thus abusing forensic psychiatry, was not found in this study.