Background: Clinical admissions and inpatient services are increasingly replaced by enhanced community treatment in Western countries. Currently the Dutch mental health legislation is being revised, making compulsory community treatment a novel legal option in The Netherlands.
Aim: To summarize the current literature on compulsory community treatment and to review studies relating to efficacy, patients' and carers' perspectives, and costs.
Method: We conducted a systematic review of the literature, using PubMed and Trip.
Results: Current literature does not provide evidence for positive effects of cct in comparison to voluntary care in terms of admission duration, time-to-readmission, and clinical outcomes.
Conclusion: Results from England and the United States do not provide support for efficacy of cct in terms of number and/or duration of hospital admissions, and in terms of clinical outcomes compared to voluntary treatment. There is a pressing need for studies designed to allow for direct comparisons between outcomes after compulsory hospital admission and compulsory community treatment.