The French Mental Health Law of 5 July 2011 stipulates that psychiatric patients can be hospitalized in five different ways. Three types of admission for involuntary treatment are defined under "admission at the request of a third party". The first is "psychiatric care at the request of a third party", followed by two "exceptional" admission measures in the case of an emergency ("emergency psychiatric care at the request of a third party") and imminent danger ("psychiatric care in the case of imminent danger"). The aim of this retrospective study was to determine whether the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients involuntarily admitted to psychiatric care in a French regional teaching hospital differed according to the administrative measure enabling this type of placement. We reviewed a sample of admission medical certificates issued between 1 July 2014 and 30 June 30, 2015 at the Tours University Hospital (France) for psychiatric care without consent. We recorded the following patient characteristics. Collected data included the type of care measure, age, gender, and the presence or absence of various clinical syndromes, such as suicidal thoughts and behavioral, depressive, manic or psychotic disorders. Multivariable analysis showed that a psychotic syndrome was a risk factor for hospitalization under "exceptional" measures and a behavioral syndrome for hospitalization under "psychiatric care at the request of a third party". Several clinical profiles emerged, but suicidal thoughts did not appear to be associated with the type of measures taken. In our sample, the choice of measure applied does not appear to rely on the only clinical observation at admission, contrary to what was planned in the Law.