Pediatric psychiatric emergency rooms during COVID-19: a multi-center study

Area of Science:

• Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Mental Health Services Research
• Public Health

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted child and adolescent mental health.
• Surveys indicated a rise in mental health issues among youth.
• Psychiatric emergency rooms (ERs) are vital for immediate mental healthcare access.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze changes in child and adolescent psychiatric ER visits during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• To compare mental health emergency visit trends between 2019 and 2020.
• To assess the impact of the pandemic on psychiatric diagnoses in youth.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of anonymized data from two psychiatric ERs and one general hospital.
• Comparison of child and adolescent visits between March-December 2019 and March-December 2020.
• Multilevel linear modeling was used for statistical analysis.

Main Results:

• A significant decrease in overall psychiatric ER visits for children and adolescents was observed (p=.017).
• Visits for stress-related, anxiety, and mood disorders declined significantly (p=.017).
• There was a significant increase in the proportion of visits for severe mental disorders (p=.029).

Conclusions:

• The study highlights a paradoxical decrease in routine psychiatric emergency visits despite increased mental health needs.
• The findings underscore the critical role of tele-psychiatry in augmenting emergency mental health services for youth.
• Further research is needed on the long-term mental health effects of the pandemic on children and adolescents and the integration of tele-psychiatry.