Background: From 2006 to 2009, the Dutch government provided (sic)5 m annually for a nationwide program to reduce seclusion in psychiatric hospitals by 10% a year. We aimed to establish whether the numbers of both seclusion and involuntary medication changed significantly after the start of this national program. Methods: Using Poisson regression to estimate difference in logit slopes, we analyzed data for 1998-2009 from the Dutch Health Care Inspectorate, retrospectively examining the national numbers of seclusion and involuntary medication before and after the start of the program. Results: The difference in slopes of the numbers of seclusion before and after the start of the program was statistically significant (difference 5.2%: p < 0.001). After the start of the program seclusions dropped 2.0% per year. Corrected for the increasing number of involuntary hospitalizations this figure was 4.7% per year. The difference in slopes of the numbers of involuntary medication did not change statistically significant (difference 0.5%, n.s.). After correction for the increasing numb Conclusions: After the start of the nationwide program the number of seclusions fell, and although significantly changing, the reduction was modest and failed to meet the objective of a 10% annual decrease. The number of involuntary medications did not change; instead, after correction for the number of involuntary hospitalizations, it increased.