COVID-19 Pandemic School Disruptions and Acute Mental Health in Children and Adolescents.

Importance: There are suggestions that school pressure may be stressful and a factor in child and adolescent mental health disturbances, but data about this association are scarce and inconclusive. Objective: To assess whether varying degrees of school interruption were associated with changes in emergency department (ED) psychiatric visits of children and adolescents before and after the COVID-19 outbreak. Design, Setting, and Participants: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted at 9 urban university hospitals in Italy. All ED visits from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2021, for psychiatric reasons of patients younger than 18 years were examined for demographic characteristics and type of psychopathologic factors. Data analysis was conducted from July 1 to August 31, 2023. Exposure: The disruption in the usual succession of school and holiday periods brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic at different times and with various degrees of intensity. Main Outcomes and Measures: Total number of pediatric ED visits, psychiatric ED visits, and psychiatric ED visits categorized by specific reasons (eg, psychomotor agitation, suicide ideation [SI] or suicide attempt [SA], and eating disorders) on a weekly basis. Results: A total of 13 014 psychiatric ED visits (1.3% of all pediatric ED visits) were recorded (63.2% females; mean [SD] age, 13.8 [3.8] years). The number of ED psychiatric visits increased over time (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 1.19; 95% CI, 1.16-1.22 for each year). Significant increases in ED visits were observed for eating disorders (294.8%), SI (297.8%), and SA (249.1%). School opening, but not social lockdown restriction, was associated with an increase in the number of ED psychiatric visits (IRR, 1.29; 95% CI, 1.23-1.34), which was evident for females and for SI with SA. Socioeconomic status was associated with an increase in psychiatric visits for males (IRR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.04-1.20) but not females (IRR, 1.04; 95% CI, 0.98-1.10). Conclusions and Relevance: In this study, school opening was associated with an increased incidence of acute psychiatric emergencies among children and adolescents, suggesting that school can be a substantial source of stress with acute mental health implications.

Mental Health of Children and Adolescents before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Did the Lockdown Modify Psychiatric Emergencies in Tuscany, Italy?

The COVID-19 pandemic has deeply impacted several aspects of the lives of children and adolescents. We analyzed the trends of psychiatric disorders in the emergency room. The analysis comprised the pre-pandemic (2018-2019) and the pandemic years (2020-2021). We conducted a retrospective observational epidemiological study that compared admissions during the two periods on a sample of 1311 patients aged between 4 and 18, focusing on new admissions vs. relapse, demographic variables, lockdown severity, presentation of psychiatric symptoms, diagnosis, severity, and outcome. Over the two-year pandemic period, we observed a 33% decrease in admissions to the emergency room for non-psychiatric disorders and a 200% increase in admissions for psychiatric emergencies. This increase is concentrated in periods with fewer restrictions and in the second year of the pandemic. We also observed a greater impact of psychiatric disorders on female patients, a greater severity of psychiatric disorders, a change in diagnoses associated with the presentation of symptoms, and an increase in hospitalizations. The children's psychiatric emergency service faced an "emergency within the emergency". In the future, it will be necessary to continue the follow-up of these patients, strengthen the field of study of gender psychiatry, and intensify our efforts towards prevention.