Shocking numbers of women forcibly restrained with drugs in psychiatric units

‘I shouldn’t have been in there. Nobody should be in those places. It was traumatising. It felt like I was being done for murder or something,’ Vicky tells Maya Oppenheim

Women in psychiatric units are significantly more likely than men to have chemicals forcibly injected while being restrained by staff (Getty/iStock)

It is fair to say psychiatric units are places shrouded in secrecy, which remain a mystery to people outside their walls. As such, many Britons would be profoundly shocked to learn of the punitive, inhumane practices which take place inside psychiatric wards up and down the country. Patients who deviate from the stringent rules in such places are dealt with harshly and sometimes brutally by staff. Being violently restrained by multiple members of staff to be forcibly injected with powerful medication or being isolated in seclusion rooms are just some of the routine practices.

More shockingly, the data shows that women in psychiatric units are significantly more likely than men to have chemicals forcibly injected while being restrained by staff. NHS data, exclusively shared with The Independent, paints a terrifying picture of the situation between October 2020 to February 2021. The figures, shared by Dr Jessica Taylor, reveal the NHS carries out thousands of forced chemical restraints on individuals each month, but 63 per cent of all of those chemical restraints are used on women.

Dr Taylor, a psychologist who explores the issue in her new book Sexy but Psycho, notes that girls under the age of 18 receive the highest number of chemical restraints of all age groups and genders. While the proportion of men and women in the services was found to be virtually equal, Taylor’s analysis of the data demonstrates that girls and women under the age of 34 are forced to endure 64 per cent of all chemical restraints.