摘要:Objectives. There has recently been an increased focus on the use of coercion in psychiatric care and on the need to consider the patients’ autonomy. Staff that are faced with aggressive, violent, or self-harming inpatients, must consider patient and staff safety, as well as the need to provide humane and efficient treatment. Although physical and pharmacological restraint and seclusion are used regularly in psychiatric institutions in many countries, little has been published about staff’s motivation for using the interventions, and the effects they have. In the present work, the objectives were to identify the number of incidents and the characteristics of the patients involved, the staff’s reasons for the use and choice of a particular type of intervention, the effects of the interventions, and possible alternatives to the use of restraint and seclusion.(Int J Circumpolar Health 2004; 63(4):445-447)Keywords: psychiatry, coercion, violence, physical restraint, pharmacological restraint, seclusion, staff’s attitudes, patients’ experiences, Norway