Physical restraint of patients: historical notes relating to the nineteenth and twentieth century

Abstract

Physical restraint has been historically considered a necessary procedure to control the behaviour of the mentally ill. In the late eighteenth century moral treatment would pave the way for new initiatives against restraint, such as those instituted by British psychiatrists. They stressed the importance of training and supervision, as well as a minimum staff ratio, as being determining factors in reducing the use of restraint. This philosophy of treatment, despite its benefits, was introduced later and to a lesser extent in the rest of Europe, although, in other countries care was also made more humane through new therapeutic procedures. By contrast, in the United States most psychiatrists disagreed with those who advocated non-restraint, and continued using controversial methods to control the behaviour of patients. In Spain many difficulties hindered the improvement of conditions in institutions, many of which were in a sorry state. The initiatives of a few professionals and some cautious legal advances tried to alleviate the harshness of the treatment methods used. In the early twentieth century professional manuals were already available, which included the care to be given during the application of physical restraints. However it was not until the 1950, when the emergence of new psychotropic drugs and the distribution of important guidelines on the protection of the rights of patients that the widespread use of this procedure would be successfully reduced.