April 16, 1999

The Hartford Courant newspaper conducted a 50-state survey last year that found that 142 patients died during or after being restrained or placed in seclusion from 1988 to 1998. The deaths occurred in psychiatric wards and hospitals, group homes, residential facilities for troubled youth, mental retardation facilities, and group homes nationwide, according to the October 11, 1998, article.

A database compiled by a team of four reporters revealed the following:

• 23 people died after being restrained in face-down holds.


• 20 people died after being tied in leather wrist and ankle cuffs or vests and ignored for hours.


• Among the confirmed causes of death in 125 cases, 33 percent died of asphyxia, and 26 percent died from cardiac-related causes.


• Children made up 26 percent of the 114 cases in which patient age was confirmed, nearly twice their proportionate number in mental health institutions.

The newspaper launched a five-month investigation into the use of seclusion and restraint after the death of an 11-year-old in a Connecticut psychiatric hospital last March, according to the article.

In conducting the survey, four reporters contacted health care officials and licensing agencies, child fatality review boards, and patient advocates in each state. Because New York is the only state to require that every death in a private or state facility be reported and investigated by an independent agency, the actual number of such deaths nationwide may be higher, according to the article.

To estimate the national death rate, the newspaper hired a research specialist at the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. Using earlier studies on restraint use and data from New York State and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, among other sources, the researcher estimated that between 50 and 150 such deaths occur every year nationally. The total number of restraint-related deaths in the last decade was estimated between 500 and 1,500, according to the article.

The Courant database of confirmed deaths is posted at www.courant.com/news/special/restraint/death-data.stm.