Am J Psychiatry 1990; 147:1283-1289
Copyright © 1990 by American Psychiatric Association
Is locked seclusion necessary for children under the age of 14?
T Antoinette, S Iyengar and J Puig-Antich
Mayview State Hospital, Bridgeville, Pa.
A retrospective study of the effect of the implementation of an unlocked
seclusion policy was conducted on three child psychiatric inpatient units
in a state hospital in Pennsylvania. Unlocked seclusion was associated with
1) increased use of tranquilizing medications administered as needed on all
three units, 2) increased clustering of medications, administered as
needed, in the units that used seclusion most, 3) diverse changes in the
three units regarding frequency and clustering of unlocked seclusion, and
4) increased correlations between medications administered as needed and
seclusion, particularly in the more behaviorally disturbed children. These
findings suggest that locked seclusion may be a necessary therapeutic
intervention, particularly with severely disturbed children with serious
conduct and impulsive disorders.
