ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Rehabilitation
This article is part of the Research TopicRedefining Acute Psychiatric Care: Strategies for Improved Inpatient ExperiencesView all 11 articles
Nurse-Perpetrated Abuse in Japanese Psychiatric Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Study of Prevalence and Correlates
Provisionally accepted
- Kansai Medical University, Hirakata, Japan
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Introduction: The abuse of psychiatric inpatients in psychiatric hospitals is a global concern. Although the prevalence may be underestimated due to underreporting rates of physical abuse and restraint have been reported at 6% and 40%, respectively. However, data on this issue are scarce, where the picture is further complicated by the difficulty in defining "abuse" within a context where certain coercive measures are legally permitted. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of such abuse and its psychological and workplace-related correlates. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 203 nursing staff working in eight psychiatric hospitals located in both rural and urban areas of Japan. A self-administered, web-based questionnaire battery assessed demographic characteristics, workplace violence, inappropriate and abusive behaviors, moral sensitivity, ethical climate, attitudes toward recovery, job stressors, and moral distress. Results: The prevalence of respondents who reported experiencing at least one of the 32 abusive behaviors of interest was 87.1%, with ignoring or rejecting patients being the most common form. Logistic regression analysis revealed that experience of workplace violence and more recovery-oriented attitudes were significantly associated with higher odds of engaging in abusive behaviors (adjusted odds ratios: 3.37 and 1.17, respectively), whereas greater moral sensitivity and longer clinical experience were inversely associated (adjusted odds ratios: 0.92 and 0.95, respectively). Discussion: These findings indicate a relatively high prevalence of nurse-to-patient abuse in Japanese psychiatric hospitals and highlight the complex interplay of individual and workplace factors in such behaviors. This evidence may serve as a foundation for the development of targeted interventions aimed at preventing abuse in psychiatric care settings.
Keywords: physical abuse, Psychiatric Hospitals, Nurses, Violence, Prevalence, Coercion
Received: 08 May 2025; Accepted: 27 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Matoba, Yayama, Teshima and Miki. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kei Matoba, matoba.kei@kmu.ac.jp
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.