Impact of SARS-CoV2 pandemic in teenagers mental health. Suicide ideation and attempts
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Copyright (c) 2023 Revista de Psiquiatría Infanto-Juvenil
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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https://doi.org/10.31766/revpsij.v40n2a2Keywords:
COVID-19, pandemic, epidemic, mental health, adolescentsAbstract
Introduction: One of the major concerns since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the possible consequences on mental health. Objective: The aim of this study is to compare the incidence and characteristics of cases attending to the Paediatric Emergency Department (PED) of a tertiary hospital for self-harm ideation/attempt in the year prior to the SARS-COV2 pandemic (2019) with those seen during the pandemic (2020-2021). Material and method: Retrospective observational study including patients <18 years seen in the ED for suicidal ideation/attempt from January 2019 to December 2021. Results: During the study period, 54 consultations for suicidal ideation/attempt were attended. The annual incidence was almost identical in 2019 and 2020 [11 (0.02% of total EDs) and 12 cases (0.03%) respectively], rising to 31 episodes (0.15%) in 2021 with two peaks of incidence: at the beginning of the year (January-February) and at the beginning of the school year (September-October). 85.1% of cases were female, 72.2% of Caucasian/European ethnicity. The mean age was 14.2 years (SD: 1.3). 37% had a history of self-harm, 81.4% had psychiatric/psychological pathology and 42.5% had family dysfunction. Suicide attempts accounted for 83.3% of the episodes. Toxic/medication overeating was the most frequent method (62.2%), mainly by psychotropic drugs. Conclusions: In the second year since the start of the pandemic, a striking increase in psychiatric emergencies for suicidal ideation/attempts was observed, which could be evidence of the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of children and adolescents.
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