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Mental Health of Children and Adolescents before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Did the Lockdown Modify Psychiatric Emergencies in Tuscany, Italy?

The COVID-19 pandemic has deeply impacted several aspects of the lives of children and adolescents. We analyzed the trends of psychiatric disorders in the emergency room. The analysis comprised the pre-pandemic (2018–2019) and the pandemic years (2020–2021). We conducted a retrospective observationa...

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Autores principales: Tavano, Simone, Caini, Saverio, Sforzi, Idanna, Silvestri, Caterina, Voller, Fabio, Pisano, Tiziana
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10299620/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37373847
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm12124154
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author Tavano, Simone
Caini, Saverio
Sforzi, Idanna
Silvestri, Caterina
Voller, Fabio
Pisano, Tiziana
author_facet Tavano, Simone
Caini, Saverio
Sforzi, Idanna
Silvestri, Caterina
Voller, Fabio
Pisano, Tiziana
author_sort Tavano, Simone
collection PubMed
description The COVID-19 pandemic has deeply impacted several aspects of the lives of children and adolescents. We analyzed the trends of psychiatric disorders in the emergency room. The analysis comprised the pre-pandemic (2018–2019) and the pandemic years (2020–2021). We conducted a retrospective observational epidemiological study that compared admissions during the two periods on a sample of 1311 patients aged between 4 and 18, focusing on new admissions vs. relapse, demographic variables, lockdown severity, presentation of psychiatric symptoms, diagnosis, severity, and outcome. Over the two-year pandemic period, we observed a 33% decrease in admissions to the emergency room for non-psychiatric disorders and a 200% increase in admissions for psychiatric emergencies. This increase is concentrated in periods with fewer restrictions and in the second year of the pandemic. We also observed a greater impact of psychiatric disorders on female patients, a greater severity of psychiatric disorders, a change in diagnoses associated with the presentation of symptoms, and an increase in hospitalizations. The children’s psychiatric emergency service faced an “emergency within the emergency”. In the future, it will be necessary to continue the follow-up of these patients, strengthen the field of study of gender psychiatry, and intensify our efforts towards prevention.
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spelling pubmed-102996202023-06-28 Mental Health of Children and Adolescents before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Did the Lockdown Modify Psychiatric Emergencies in Tuscany, Italy? Tavano, Simone Caini, Saverio Sforzi, Idanna Silvestri, Caterina Voller, Fabio Pisano, Tiziana J Clin Med Article The COVID-19 pandemic has deeply impacted several aspects of the lives of children and adolescents. We analyzed the trends of psychiatric disorders in the emergency room. The analysis comprised the pre-pandemic (2018–2019) and the pandemic years (2020–2021). We conducted a retrospective observational epidemiological study that compared admissions during the two periods on a sample of 1311 patients aged between 4 and 18, focusing on new admissions vs. relapse, demographic variables, lockdown severity, presentation of psychiatric symptoms, diagnosis, severity, and outcome. Over the two-year pandemic period, we observed a 33% decrease in admissions to the emergency room for non-psychiatric disorders and a 200% increase in admissions for psychiatric emergencies. This increase is concentrated in periods with fewer restrictions and in the second year of the pandemic. We also observed a greater impact of psychiatric disorders on female patients, a greater severity of psychiatric disorders, a change in diagnoses associated with the presentation of symptoms, and an increase in hospitalizations. The children’s psychiatric emergency service faced an “emergency within the emergency”. In the future, it will be necessary to continue the follow-up of these patients, strengthen the field of study of gender psychiatry, and intensify our efforts towards prevention. MDPI 2023-06-20 /pmc/articles/PMC10299620/ /pubmed/37373847 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm12124154 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Tavano, Simone
Caini, Saverio
Sforzi, Idanna
Silvestri, Caterina
Voller, Fabio
Pisano, Tiziana
Mental Health of Children and Adolescents before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Did the Lockdown Modify Psychiatric Emergencies in Tuscany, Italy?
title Mental Health of Children and Adolescents before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Did the Lockdown Modify Psychiatric Emergencies in Tuscany, Italy?
title_full Mental Health of Children and Adolescents before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Did the Lockdown Modify Psychiatric Emergencies in Tuscany, Italy?
title_fullStr Mental Health of Children and Adolescents before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Did the Lockdown Modify Psychiatric Emergencies in Tuscany, Italy?
title_full_unstemmed Mental Health of Children and Adolescents before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Did the Lockdown Modify Psychiatric Emergencies in Tuscany, Italy?
title_short Mental Health of Children and Adolescents before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Did the Lockdown Modify Psychiatric Emergencies in Tuscany, Italy?
title_sort mental health of children and adolescents before and during the covid-19 pandemic: how did the lockdown modify psychiatric emergencies in tuscany, italy?
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10299620/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37373847
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm12124154
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