Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2021 Jan;21(1):e77-e79.
doi: 10.7861/clinmed.2020-0635. Epub 2020 Dec 18.

Mental-health-related admissions to the acute medical unit during COVID-19

Ben Grimshaw  1 , Ella Chaudhuri  2
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Mental-health-related admissions to the acute medical unit during COVID-19

Ben Grimshaw et al. Clin Med (Lond). 2021 Jan.

Abstract

During COVID-19 there has been increased pressure on mental health services internationally. In this report, we compare admissions to one acute medical unit (AMU) for patients with mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic (April, May and June 2020) to the same period of time in 2019. We found an increase in this cohort of patients in 2020, both as an absolute number and as a proportion of the medical take. We outline some strategies which we have adopted locally to improve care for this patient group.

Keywords: AMU; COVID-19; acute medicine; mental health.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig 1.
Fig 1.
Cumulative Mental-health-related admissions plotted against time (2019 and 2020).
Fig 2.
Fig 2.
Mental-health-related admissions as a proportion of the medical take for 3 months in 2019 and 2020.
Fig 3.
Fig 3.
Monthly mental-health-related admissions for 3 months in 2019 and 2020.
Fig 4.
Fig 4.
Proportion of patients in each mental health coding category for 2019 and 2020.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Torales J, O'Higgins M, Castaldelli-Maia JM, et al. The outbreak of COVID-19 coronavirus and its impact on global mental health. Int J Soc Psychiatry 2020;66:317–20. - PubMed
    1. Ettman C, Abdalla SM, Cohen GH, et al. Prevalence of depression symptoms in US adults before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. JAMA Network Open 2020;3:e2019686. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ng Q, De Deyn MLZQ, Lima DY, et al. 2020. The wounded healer: A narrative review of the mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers. Asian J Psychiatr 2020;54:102258. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mental Health UK Managing your mental health during the coronavirus outbreak. https://mentalhealth-uk.org/help-and-information/covid-19-and-your-menta... [Accessed 1 July 2020].
    1. Fancourt D, Steptoe A. COVID-19 social study. https://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/project/covid-19-social-study.

Publication types