Effects of COVID-19 Lockdowns on the Development of Educational, Social and Emotional Gaps among Children: A Retrospective Chart Review.

BACKGROUND: School closures due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak affected students physically, socially, and psychologically with an increase in the number of children and adolescent presenting with anxiety, depression, and drug abuse. OBJECTIVES: To examine the impact of COVID-19 and lockdown on the mental health of minors during the pandemic period and to characterize the type and number of referrals to a regional psychiatric outpatient clinic. METHODS: This study included 380 children evaluated in an outpatient child psychiatric clinic. They were divided into two groups: before the lockdowns (BLD) (n=248), from January 2019 to February 2020, and during the lockdowns (LD) (n=132), from March 2020 to April 2021. RESULTS: When comparing the LD to BLD, there was increase in suicide attempts (9.8% vs. 2.8%) and in the use of psychotherapy (81% vs. 56%). There was a decrease in the diagnoses of behavior disorders (29.5% vs. 44.8%) and ADHD (29.5% vs. 50%); as well as a decrease in stimulant usage (22.7% vs. 38%). There was a statistically non-significant increase in the number of children with depression, anxiety, and drug-use disorder. CONCLUSIONS: Many children developed educational, social, emotional, and behavioral gaps during LD, and they lost skills to deal with everyday problems due to social isolation. It is important to follow the long-term impact of the lockdowns and social isolation.

Trends in CV mortality among patients with known mental and behavioral disorders in the US between 1999 and 2020.

Introduction: Patients with mental disorders are at increased risk of cardiovascular events. We aimed to assess the cardiovascular mortality trends over the last two decades among patients with mental and behavioral co-morbidities in the US. Methods: We performed a retrospective, observational study using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (CDC WONDER) Multiple Cause of Death dataset. We determined national trends in age-standardized mortality rates attributed to cardiovascular diseases in patients with and without mental and behavioral disorders, from 1999 to 2020, stratified by mental and behavioral disorders subtype [ICD10 codes F], age, gender, race, and place of residence. Results: Among more than 18.7 million cardiovascular deaths in the United States (US), 13.5% [2.53 million] were patients with a concomitant mental and behavioral disorder. During the study period, among patients with mental and behavioral disorders, the age-adjusted mortality rate increased by 113.9% Vs a 44.8% decline in patients with no mental disorder (both p<0.05). In patients with mental and behavioral disorders, the age-adjusted mortality rate increased more significantly among patients whose mental and behavioral disorder was secondary to substance abuse (+532.6%, p<0.05) than among those with organic mental disorders, such as dementia or delirium (+6.2%, P- nonsignificant). Male patients (+163.6%) and residents of more rural areas (+128-162%) experienced a more prominent increase in age-adjusted cardiovascular mortality. Discussion: While there was an overall reduction in cardiovascular mortality in the US in the past two decades, we demonstrated an overall increase in cardiovascular mortality among patients with mental disorders.