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
Multicenter Study
. 2022 Dec 27;22(1):828.
doi: 10.1186/s12888-022-04371-7.

Pediatric psychiatric emergency rooms during COVID-19: a multi-center study

Galit Erez  1 , Sol Yakubovich  2 , Hadar Sadeh  3 , Gal Shoval  4 , Gila Schoen  4 , Gal Meiri  3 , Nimrod Hertz-Palmor  5 , Tali Bretler  6 , Yael Barzilai  2 , Mariela Mosheva  5 , Doron Gothelf  5 , Yuval Bloch  7
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Pediatric psychiatric emergency rooms during COVID-19: a multi-center study

Galit Erez et al. BMC Psychiatry. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has been a major stressor for the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents. Surveys and reports from hotlines indicate a significant rise in mental health problems. As the psychiatric emergency room (ER) is a first-line free-of-charge facility for psychiatric emergencies, we expected to see a significant increase in visits, specifically of new patients suffering from anxiety, depression, or stress-related disorders.

Methods: Data from two psychiatric hospital ERs and one general hospital were included. All visits of children and adolescents from the computerized files between March and December of 2019 were analyzed anonymously and compared to the same months in 2020, using multilevel linear modeling.

Results: There was a significant decline in the total number of visits (p = .017), specifically among those diagnosed as suffering from stress-related, anxiety, and mood disorder groups (p = .017), and an incline in the proportion of visits of severe mental disorders (p = .029).

Discussion: The limited use of child and adolescent psychiatric emergency facilities during the pandemic highlights the importance of tele-psychiatry as part of emergency services. It also suggests the importance of the timeline of the emergence of clinically relevant new psychiatric diagnoses related to the pandemic. Future studies are needed to establish the long-term effects of the pandemic and the expeditious use of tele-psychiatry.

Keywords: COVID-19; Children & adolescents; Psychiatric emergency room; Severe mental disorder; Stress-related.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Visits to the ER before and during the pandemic
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Diagnosis of patients visiting the ER before and during the pandemic
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Patrick SW, Henkhaus LE, Zickafoose JS, Lovell K, Halvorson A, Loch S, et al. Well-being of parents and children during the COVID-19 pandemic: a national survey. Pediatrics. 2020;146:e2020016824. doi: 10.1542/peds.2020-016824. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Duan L, Shao X, Wang Y, Huang Y, Miao J, Yang X, et al. An investigation of mental health status of children and adolescents in china during the outbreak of COVID-19. J Affect Disord. 2020;275:112–118. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2020.06.029. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Esposito S, Giannitto N, Squarcia A, Neglia C, Argentiero A, Minichetti P, et al. Development of psychological problems among adolescents during school closures because of the COVID-19 lockdown phase in Italy: a cross-sectional survey. Front Pediatr. 2021;8:628072. doi: 10.3389/fped.2020.628072. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Arendt F, Markiewitz A, Mestas M, Scherr S. COVID-19 pandemic, government responses, and public mental health: Investigating consequences through crisis hotline calls in two countries. Soc Sci Med. 2020;265:113532. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113532. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Batchelor S, Stoyanov S, Pirkis J, Kõlves K. Use of kids helpline by children and young people in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic. J Adolesc Health. 2021;68:1067–1074. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2021.03.015. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types