Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe restraint use in care of patients with psychiatric disorders in an attempt to avoid unnecessary restraint use and provide information for developing standards regarding restraint use as a therapeutic maneuver. Methods: For this descriptive study, discharge records from N National Mental Hospital in the year 2009 were reviewed by trained nurses during Dec. 24, 2010 and Mar. 31, 2011. There were 596 restrains applied on 232 of 1,322 discharges. Data collected include general characteristic of patients, the frequency of restraint use, time since admission when restraint was applied, time of the day when restraint was applied, duration of restraint application, place of occurrence, reasons for restraint use, and degree of damage to the patent. Work experience of nurses who applied restraints, number of workforce at the time of restraint, and season of the year was also identified. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square test, t-test, ANOVA, $Scheff{\grave{e}}$ and Jonckheere-Terpstra were applied using SPSS 14.0 to analyze the data. Results: There were 596 restraint uses among 232 patients. Restraints were applied most frequently on males in their 40s, patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, and patients repeating admissions more than 6 times. Restraints were frequently applied within first week following admission, between 16:00 and 20:00, and the average duration of restraint was 5 hours. There were significant differences according to diagnoses of patients in the season restraint occured, time, place of occurrence, reason for restraint, and duration of restraint. Patients with alcoholism received longer restraint application. Conclusion: In order to avoid unnecessary restraint use in patients with psychiatric disorders, nurses and other health care team members need to acknowledge a group of patients such as patients with schizophrenia and alcoholism who relatively frequently restrained or receiving longer restraint. Reasonable and careful decision need to be made when applying restraint in the care of patients with alcohol problem.