Debate: The toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on children's risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

ABSTRACT

The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) in children are still not fully known. However, COVID-19 and the mitigation strategies to limit its transmission have affected children and adolescents through increased parental morbidity and mortality, increased poverty and financial strain, social isolation, and lost connectedness to school, peers, and afterschool activities. These are all associated with increased risk for psychiatric disorders and STBs in children. Mental health professionals and pediatric primary care settings need to monitor psychiatric symptoms and risk for STBs in children and especially among those who were directly affected during the pandemic in order to reduce the burden of the pandemic on children and families.