Key words: physical restraint, chemical restraint, environmental restraint, psychological restraint
The aim of the present article is to provide a concise clarification of the concept of “restraint” in a psychiatric context, with particular reference to official sources. The concept of restraint refers in general to measures that restrict the freedom of movement of an individual and comprises various types of restraints; an essential characteristic of restraint in psychiatry is that it be fundamentally coercive in nature. The different types of restraint defined here are the following: physical restraint (manual and mechanical), physical-psychological restraint (a concept that I introduced that completes the concept of physical restraint), chemical restraint, environmental restraint and psychological restraint.
