Japanese local government management of compulsory hospitalization for patients with mental disorders and comorbid COVID-19

Nobushige Naito; Tetsu Hirosawa; Makoto Tsubomoto; Masuhiko Sano; Yoshiaki Miyagishi; Masafumi Kameya; Takeshi Okuda; Mitsuru Kikuchi

doi:10.1016/j.ajp.2021.102859

Japanese local government management of compulsory hospitalization for patients with mental disorders and comorbid COVID-19

Asian J Psychiatr. 2021 Nov:65:102859. doi: 10.1016/j.ajp.2021.102859. Epub 2021 Sep 20.

Authors

Nobushige Naito¹, Tetsu Hirosawa², Makoto Tsubomoto², Masuhiko Sano², Yoshiaki Miyagishi², Masafumi Kameya², Takeshi Okuda², Mitsuru Kikuchi²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Science, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medicine, 13-1 Takara-machi, Kanazawa 920-8641, Japan. Electronic address: nobunobu@med.kanazawa-u.ac.jp.
² Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Science, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medicine, 13-1 Takara-machi, Kanazawa 920-8641, Japan.

Abstract

Administering medical treatment or managing quarantine for a patient is particularly difficult when a patient harming others or causing self-harm because of severe depression, a manic state, or psychomotor agitation is also infected with COVID-19. Kanazawa University Hospital is the only facility able to manage such difficult cases occurring in Ishikawa prefecture, a local administrative area in Japan. The hospital has arranged a negative pressure apparatus in a psychiatric ward with two protection rooms. This report describes an urgently established but viable system in one prefecture of Japan for treating COVID-19-infected patients with severe psychiatric symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; Compulsory hospitalization; Forensic psychiatry; Public mental health; Risk of self-harm or harming others.

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Hospitalization
Humans
Japan
Local Government
Mental Disorders* / complications
Mental Disorders* / epidemiology
Mental Disorders* / therapy
Pandemics
SARS-CoV-2