Neurological

ED visits for pediatric mental health issues increased during COVID-19

HealthDay News – The percentage of emergency room visits for pediatric mental illness (MH) increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an online research letter posted on the JAMA Network Open on April 30th.

Polina Krass, MD of Philadelphia Children’s Hospital and colleagues evaluated changes in demographics and clinical outcomes of visits to the pediatric emergency room for mental illness during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis included 11,490 patients (aged 5 to 24 years) who presented with a diagnosis of MH in an emergency department of a tertiary children’s hospital (between January 1, 2018 and January 1, 2021).

The researchers found that the average number of monthly MH visits during the COVID-19 pandemic decreased significantly (from 338.6 to 260.8 visits per month), but the proportion of visits to the emergency room for MH diseases was significant increased (from 4.0 to 5.7 percent). During the pandemic, patients with MH visits to the emergency room were significantly more likely to be female, white, and older than 12 years, and were also more likely to have commercial health insurance. During the pandemic, there was a higher adjusted probability of being hospitalized (adjusted odds ratio, 1.4), with longer adjusted lengths of stay for patients admitted for MH disease during the COVID-19 pandemic (3.4 Days longer).

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“Our results could reflect challenges in disposition for definitive MH care and indicate a lack of MH treatment resources,” the authors write.

Abstract / full text

Subjects:

COVID19 General Psychiatry Pediatric Neurology

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