Behavioral Health Diagnoses and Health Care Use Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Emerging evidence has suggested a population-wide worsening of psychiatric symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among individuals with preexisting mental health conditions. The authors investigated whether reported behavioral health problems are being identified and treated.

This observational cohort study retrospectively compared Medicaid data of patients from the first year of the pandemic (2020) in the United States (N=1,589,111 patients) with the corresponding data from the year before (2019; N=1,715,872 patients). Outcome measures included several behavioral health diagnoses and health care utilization.

During the pandemic period examined, the numbers of patients served, adults receiving a new diagnosis of anxiety, and children receiving a new diagnosis of depression all increased. Across all age groups, nonbehavioral health emergency department visits significantly decreased.

These findings support reports of increases in psychiatric morbidity but do not provide evidence for increased demand for health care services.