Researchers find that on average, one suicide occurred for every 64 discharges from forced psychiatric hospitalization, with the suicide rate highest for 25- to 29-year olds and males. The study adds new urgency to eliminating coercive psychiatric practices.

A new study from Sweden adds to the growing evidence of a much increased risk of suicide for patients given inpatient psychiatric treatment against their will.  The study’s findings add new urgency for replacing coercive psychiatric practices with mental health treatment based on informed consent and respect for human rights.

Analyzing medical records from over 72,000 Swedish patients who received involuntary psychiatric inpatient treatment over the last decade, researchers found that nearly 3 in 100 (2.9%) of these patients committed suicide during or after their hospitalization. On average, patients were hospitalized for approximately four weeks before being discharged.

Male involuntarily committed patients had on average a 35% higher risk of suicide after discharge compared to female involuntary inpatients.  The suicide rate was highest among 25- to 29-year olds for both males and females.

With each additional involuntary commitment for a patient, their risk of suicide increased.  Taking into account multiple involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations by some patients, the researchers reported that, “on average, one suicide was recorded for every 64 discharges following IPC [involuntary psychiatric care].”

Higher suicide and psychiatric drug rates

The suicide risk for patients involuntarily admitted to psychiatric facilities was compared to patients voluntarily admitted, patients receiving outpatient psychiatric treatment, and the general public, in follow-up periods of one month, three months, one year, and five years.

• Compared to patients voluntarily admitted, the involuntarily admitted patients had a higher relative suicide rate that continued to rise over all follow-up periods except the one-month period, when the rate was the same.  Risk was 57% greater over the five-year period.
• Compared to patients receiving outpatient psychiatric treatment, the involuntary inpatients had what the researchers characterized as a “significantly elevated” suicide rate – more than 3 times higher – over all follow-up periods after discharge.
• Compared to the general population not receiving psychiatric treatment, the involuntary psychiatric inpatients had a “markedly higher” suicide rate – 198 times higher in the first month after discharge, declining to 56 times higher over five years.

It should be noted that treatment during involuntary psychiatric hospitalization can include additional coercive practices, such as forced drugging, seclusion, restraint, and electroshock without consent, which can be contributing factors to subsequent suicides.

The study also revealed that involuntary psychiatric inpatients who committed suicide were administered psychiatric drugs at high rates in the year prior to their involuntary admission – and at higher rates than involuntary psychiatric inpatients who did not commit suicide, with the exception of antipsychotic drugs:

• sedatives – prescribed to 71% of those who died by suicide vs. 58% of those who did not
• antidepressants – 66% vs. 53%
• antipsychotics – 60% vs. 64%
• anti-anxiety drugs –56% vs. 44%
• antiepileptic drugs (often prescribed as mood stabilizers) – 21% vs. 18%
• psychostimulants (often prescribed for ADHD) –12% vs. 7%

Psychiatric drugs are known to increase the risk of many abnormal physical and psychological conditions, among them depression, suicidal thoughts and actions, and violence.  Drugs administered before, during, and after psychiatric hospitalization can be suspected as contributing factors in suicides.

Other recent research also finds increased suicide risk

Increased rates of suicide have been found in other recent research into involuntary commitment to a psychiatric facility.  A 2025 study found involuntary psychiatric hospitalization nearly doubles the probability of dying by suicide or overdose and also nearly doubles the probability of being charged with a violent crime.

The researchers in this study point out that disruptions to income, employment, and housing due to the psychiatric detention contribute to increased risks of mortality and crime.

Patients who perceived coercion during their admission into psychiatric hospitalization were more likely to attempt suicide after their discharge than those who did not feel coerced, according to a 2019 study.

A 2023 study of patients receiving involuntary substance abuse treatment found that in the year following release, all patients relapsed to substance use and had at least one emergency hospital visit.  The researchers reported that their study “adds to a growing medical literature recognizing the harms of involuntary commitment for substance use disorder.”

Calls for eliminating coercive psychiatric practices

Despite the mounting research showing the harm associated with involuntary psychiatric commitment, the practice has become far more prevalent in recent years.  In 22 states with available civil commitment data for the five-year period ending in 2016, the states’ average yearly involuntary detention rate increased at three times the rate of their average population growth.

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) has long been a global leader in the fight against the use of involuntary psychiatric commitment, seclusion and restraint, forced psychiatric drugging, and electroshock, as violations of human rights.  CCHR has been instrumental in obtaining hundreds of laws against psychiatric abuse and violations of human rights worldwide since its founding in 1969 and continues to advocate for reforms in the field of mental health.

CCHR’s co-founder, the late psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry Thomas Szasz, M.D., recognized by many academics as present-day psychiatry’s most authoritative critic, stated unequivocally that “involuntary psychiatric interventions are methods of social control.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) has taken the position that involuntary psychiatric treatment is “harmful to people’s mental, emotional and physical health, sometimes leading to death” and that “many experience it as a form of trauma or re-traumatization leading to a worsening of their condition.”  The WHO is calling on United Nations member nations to enact laws to replace coercive psychiatric practices with person-centered, human rights-based mental health treatment.

The U.N.’s Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities includes the right to freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.  This right prohibits psychiatric detention and treatment without informed consent.

CCHR continues to expose the harm of coercive psychiatric practices and to push for replacing them with mental health treatment based on informed consent, thus restoring human rights and dignity to the field of mental health.