Purpose

The purpose of this study was to compare pre/post-COVID-19 changes in mental health–related emergency department visits among adolescents.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective analysis of all mental health–related emergency department visits in two large tertiary pediatric hospital centers between January 2018 and December 2020. We described monthly pre/post-COVID-19 changes in frequency and proportion of mental health visits as well as changes in hospitalization rates for eating disorders, suicidality, substance use, and other mental health conditions.

Results

We found an increase in the proportion of mental health–related emergency department visits during the months of July–December 2020 (p < .01). There was a 62% increase in eating disorder visits between 2018–2019 and 2020 (p < .01). No pre pandemic/postpandemic changes were found in the proportion of visits resulting in hospitalization for any of the four diagnostic categories.

Conclusions

Our study suggests significant impacts of COVID-19 on adolescent mental health and a need for further longitudinal research work in this area.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19 大流行之前和期间青少年心理健康相关急诊就诊：一项多中心回顾性研究

目的

本研究的目的是比较 COVID-19 前后青少年心理健康相关急诊就诊的变化。

方法

我们对 2018 年 1 月至 2020 年 12 月期间在两家大型三级儿科医院中心的所有心理健康相关急诊就诊进行了回顾性分析。我们描述了 COVID-19 前后每月心理健康就诊频率和比例的变化以及饮食失调、自杀、物质使用和其他心理健康状况的住院率变化。

结果

我们发现在 2020 年 7 月至 12 月期间，与心理健康相关的急诊就诊比例有所增加（p < .01）。2018 年至 2019 年和 2020 年期间，饮食失调就诊人数增加了 62%（p < .01）。对于四种诊断类别中的任何一种，导致住院的就诊比例没有发现大流行前/大流行后的变化。

结论

我们的研究表明 COVID-19 对青少年心理健康有重大影响，需要在该领域进行进一步的纵向研究工作。