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. 2023 Jul:163:63-67.
doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2023.04.014. Epub 2023 Apr 29.

Dramatic increase of suicidality in children and adolescents after COVID-19 pandemic start: A two-year longitudinal study

Lorena García-Fernández  1 , Verónica Romero-Ferreiro  2 , Marta Izquierdo-Izquierdo  3 , Victoria Rodríguez  4 , Miguel A Alvarez-Mon  5 , Guillermo Lahera  6 , José Luis Santos  7 , Roberto Rodriguez-Jimenez  8
Affiliations

Dramatic increase of suicidality in children and adolescents after COVID-19 pandemic start: A two-year longitudinal study

Lorena García-Fernández et al. J Psychiatr Res. 2023 Jul.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the mental health of the youngest, worsening their emotional well-being. The demand for care in psychiatric emergencies may indirectly reflect the mental health state of children and adolescents and the emotional consequences of the pandemic. Moreover, suicidality can be considered a marker of severity in this population group. Therefore, we have aimed to longitudinally describe the number of children and adolescents attended in the psychiatry emergency department due to suicidal ideation or attempts and, to explore differences in suicidality according to gender and age. A retrospective study was carried out in the University Hospital of San Juan, Alicante, Spain, from January 01, 2018 to December 31, 2021. A total of 138 participants under 18 years requesting psychiatric care due to suicidal ideation or attempts were included. The sample was composed by 35% of males and the mean age was 14.8 years old (SD = 2.2). The number of cases per year range from 10 in 2018 to 88 in 2021. Attendances were significantly higher between 2021 and the three previous years. Besides, the number of attentions registered in the last 9 months of 2021 equals those that occurred in the entire previous period. Most of the cases were girls and middle adolescents. Suicide ideation or attempts have skyrocketed in children and adolescents. This alarming increase presents a one-year lag peak from the COVID-19 outbreak and continues until the end of 2021. Girls and those over 12 years have been identified as risk groups to present suicidal ideation or attempts.

Keywords: Adolescents; COVID-19; Children; Emergency department; Suicide attempts; Suicide ideation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest Dr. R. Rodriguez-Jimenez has been a consultant for, spoken in activities of, or received grants from: Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (FIS), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Madrid Regional Government (S2010/BMD-2422 AGES; S2017/BMD-3740), JanssenCilag, Lundbeck, Otsuka, Pfizer, Ferrer, Juste, Takeda, Exeltis, Casen-Recordati, Angelini. Dr. G. Lahera has been a consultant to or has received honoraria or grants from Janssen-Cilag, Otsuka-Lundbeck, Lilly, Astra-Zeneca, CIBERSAM and Instituto de Salud Carlos III. All other authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Representation of attendances due to suicidal ideation or attempts in children and adolescents during the 2018–2021 period. The total number of cases is also presented separated by gender.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Representation of attendances due to suicidal ideation or attempts in children and adolescents during the 2018–2021 period. The total number of cases is also presented separated by age (≤12 vs. >12 years old).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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