Referrals to outpatient specialist child and adolescent psychiatry services during the COVID-19 pandemic in Slovenia

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic and the efforts to curb the spread of the disease have exposed people to significant distress on one hand and limited the resources to deal with it on the other. In this article, we compare the data on referrals to child and adolescent psychiatry specialist outpatient services before and during the pandemic.Methods We collected data about the number of provided e-referrals for child and adolescent psychiatric services for the years 2019, 2020, and 2021. In the same way, data was also gathered for child and adolescent hematology/oncology and endocrinology services in the same period to serve as controls. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and gross trends were observed on data charts.Results There were marked reductions in the number of referrals provided in the first two epidemic waves. Follow-up referrals were generally reduced more than first referrals. For the third and fourth epidemic wave, there was no general trend of reduction – on the contrary, there was an increase in first referrals for child and adolescent psychiatry referrals, which was larger than in control fields. Females aged 10–19 contributed disproportionately to that increase. Referrals for neurotic, stress-related and somatoform disorders and especially affective disorders and behavioral syndromes, associated with physiological disturbances and physical factors, were important contributors to this trend.