title: First compulsory admissions under part II of the Mental Health Act 1983: a retrospective five-year study.
abstract: The aim was to explore what happened during a five-year period to a group of patients with no previous psychiatric admissions, who were detained for the first time in a psychiatric hospital under part II of the Mental Health Act 1983. Subjects (n=189) who were detained under Section 2 or 3 in 1996 and 1997 in Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, Birmingham were identified from computerised inpatient admission records. The mean age was 40.0 years (range 21-65). Nearly half of the cohort had a diagnosis of psychoses. Asians had the highest proportion of psychoses (64%) compared to African-Caribbean patients (48%) and White patients (41%). Almost half of the sample had a further admission, with Asian and African-Caribbean patients more likely to be readmitted than their white counterparts. Nearly a third of the cohort had a further compulsory detention. On re-admission, African-Caribbean subjects were more likely to be detained compared to Asian and White subjects. Fifty per cent had a further compulsory admission within a year of the index admission. The high number of psychoses in the Asian group may be due to their psychosis being more serious at presentation as a result of denial of illness and an increased co-morbidity with drug use in Asian men.
authors.affiliation: Alderney Community Hospital, Poole, Dorset.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Law-Min
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Oyebode
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Haque
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003134:Commitment of Persons with Psychiatric Disorders / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000145:classification* / Q000208:ethnology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000208:ethnology; D012189:Retrospective Studies