Mental Health and COVID-19 in Pediatric Emergency Departments: Perspectives From Directors

The Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Children’s Mental Illness Presentations to A Pediatric Emergency Department

“…The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on the world and has resulted in widespread suffering and loss of life [1]. Of note, the paediatric population has been less severely affected by medical complications of COVID-19 compared to adults [2,3], and containment methods implemented to battle the covid pandemic have led to an overall decrease in emergency department (ED) visits during the initial stages of the pandemic [4][5][6]. Nonetheless, the pandemic has had deleterious effects on children's mental health, with several studies showing an increase in anxiety, depression, and other mental illness (MI) related complaints [7,8].…”

“…While the absolute number of MI related ED visits was variable at the onset of the pandemic in 2020, with some reporting a decrease in MI related visits [9][10][11], almost all studies have shown an increase in the proportion of MI related ED presentations , especially in the second half of the 1st year of pandemic [5,6,[12][13][14][15][16][17]. Although it seems that the pandemic has led to an increase in many MI related symptoms in the community, some have suggested that ED visits for MI related complaints are mainly reserved for the more severe cases of MI, such as those involving risk of self-harm [6,12,13], similar to presentations prior to onset of the pandemic [18].…”