The number of patients physically restrained at psychiatric hospitals more than doubled to 10,299 in fiscal 2013, compared with a decade earlier, data released Monday by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry show.
In addition to physical restraint, which often involves lashing a patient's arms and legs to a bed using special belts, the number of patients who were locked alone in a room increased by about 30 percent to 9,883 in the year ending March 2014.
The sharp rise in the use of physical restraint is partly attributable to the growing number of patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease, but a clear correlation cannot be identified, the ministry said.