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. 2021 Jun:300:113903.
doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2021.113903. Epub 2021 Mar 23.

The Effects of the 1st National COVID 19 Lockdown on Emergency Psychiatric Visit Trends in a Tertiary General Hospital in Israel

Lior Dvorak  1 , Roy Sar-El  2 , Clara Mordel  3 , Shaul Schreiber  4 , Oren Tene  5
Affiliations

The Effects of the 1st National COVID 19 Lockdown on Emergency Psychiatric Visit Trends in a Tertiary General Hospital in Israel

Lior Dvorak et al. Psychiatry Res. 2021 Jun.

Abstract

Objective: To examine whether the 1st COVID-19 lockdown in Israel affected emergency psychiatric presentations in a general hospital.

Method: We studied files of patients who underwent psychiatric consultation in the emergency-room (ER) at the Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center during a lockdown imposed in 2020. Parallel data were obtained from 2017-2019, as control.

Results: The number of psychiatric consultations dropped during the lockdown period; an increased relative number of compulsory psychiatric hospitalizations was documented and a decreased rate of consented psychiatric hospitalizations.

Discussion: Less psychiatric patients approached the ER during the lockdown period, pointing to an urgent need to facilitate access to psychiatric care in future times of crisis.

Keywords: COVID-19-lockdown; Emergency-room; Psychiatry.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare no conflict of interest.

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