[Changes in the incidence of restrictive and confining measures in inpatient psychiatric treatment of children and adolescents with residential care experience before and after abolition of closed residential centers in Hamburg].

Results from the investigation of 542 medical records of children and adolescents being admitted to the department of psychiatry of the university of Hamburg are presented and discussed. Analysis of medical records concerned the frequency of admissions in general, the diagnosis conduct disorder, the frequency of closed ward admissions and the item residential care. Data from a time period before (1976-1978) and after (1985-1987) abolition of closed ward admissions to the department of psychiatry among children and adolescents with a history of residential care. Due to the lack of research accompanying the administrative measure of abandoning closed residential care and the thereof resulting methodological problems, the obtained result can not be looked at as a substantial proof but indicates a correlation between the abolition of closed residential care and the increase in closes ward admissions to psychiatric departments.