Pediatric Mental Health Crises Up During First Year of Pandemic

MONDAY, May 23, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- During the first pandemic year, there were increases in the proportion of pediatric patients presenting to hospital with suicidal ideation/suicidal attempts, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, substance use disorders, and obsessive compulsive and related disorders, according to a study published online May 17 in Hospital Pediatrics.
Patricia Ibeziako, M.D., from Boston Children's Hospital, and colleagues describe psychiatric diagnoses and boarding among pediatric patients presenting to the hospital after the pandemic onset in a retrospective chart review at a large Northeastern U.S. pediatric hospital. Psychiatric diagnoses and boarding were compared during the 12 months before and after the pandemic onset.
The researchers found that during the first pandemic year, there were increases in the proportion of hospital presentations of pediatric patients with suicidal ideation/suicidal attempts, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, substance use disorders, and obsessive compulsive and related disorders compared with the previous year. The average length of psychiatric boarding increased more than twofold from 2.1 to 4.6 days; during the first pandemic year, 50.4 percent of patients experienced extended boarding periods of two or more days.
"The increase in suicidal behavior among youth very much predates the pandemic," Ibeziako said in a statement. "The pandemic did not alter this trend -- it simply amplified it."
Related Posts
Mood Swings During Pregnancy
You only glanced at the headlines on a local tragedy, yet you find yourself...
ASCO: Phone-Based Coaching Helps Breast Cancer Patients Lose Weight
FRIDAY, June 2, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- A telephone-based weight-loss coaching...
AHA News: A Year of Committed Exercise in Middle Age Reversed Worrisome Heart Stiffness
TUESDAY, Sept. 21, 2021 (American Heart Association News) -- A year of exercise...
Drug Used in Pregnancies in 1960s, ’70s May Be Tied to Colon Cancers Today
TUESDAY, March 14, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- The children of women who took a...