Psychiatric emergency department visits during the coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic

HaiMing Sun; HaiChun Liu; ChunYan Ma; Zheng Chen; YanYan Wei; XiaoChen Tang; LiHua Xu; YeGang Hu; YuOu Xie; Tao Chen; Tao Chen; Zheng Lu; JiJun Wang; JiJun Wang; JiJun Wang; TianHong Zhang

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1236584

Frontiers in Psychiatry (Aug 2023)

Psychiatric emergency department visits during the coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic

HaiMing Sun,
HaiChun Liu,
ChunYan Ma,
Zheng Chen,
YanYan Wei,
XiaoChen Tang,
LiHua Xu,
YeGang Hu,
YuOu Xie,
Tao Chen,
Tao Chen,
Zheng Lu,
JiJun Wang,
JiJun Wang,
JiJun Wang,
TianHong Zhang

Affiliations

HaiMing Sun: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Psychological Evaluation and Intervention, Shanghai, China
HaiChun Liu: Department of Automation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
ChunYan Ma: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Psychological Evaluation and Intervention, Shanghai, China
Zheng Chen: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Psychological Evaluation and Intervention, Shanghai, China
YanYan Wei: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Psychological Evaluation and Intervention, Shanghai, China
XiaoChen Tang: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Psychological Evaluation and Intervention, Shanghai, China
LiHua Xu: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Psychological Evaluation and Intervention, Shanghai, China
YeGang Hu: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Psychological Evaluation and Intervention, Shanghai, China
YuOu Xie: The First Clinical Medical College of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
Tao Chen: Big Data Research Lab, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Tao Chen: Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States
Zheng Lu: Department of Psychiatry, Tongji Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China
JiJun Wang: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Psychological Evaluation and Intervention, Shanghai, China
JiJun Wang: Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology (CEBSIT), Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai, China
JiJun Wang: Institute of Psychology and Behavioral Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
TianHong Zhang: Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Psychological Evaluation and Intervention, Shanghai, China

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1236584
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 14

Abstract

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BackgroundPrevious research has demonstrated the negative impact of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on mental health.AimsTo examine changes in the Chinese psychiatric emergency department (PED) visits for mental health crises that occurred during the pandemic.MethodsBefore and during the COVID-19 pandemic, PED visit counts from the largest psychiatric hospital in China between 2018 and 2020 were investigated. Electronic medical records of 2020 PED visits were extracted during the COVID-19 pandemic period and compared for the same period of 2018 and 2019.ResultsOverall, PED visits per year increased from 1,767 in 2018 to 2210 (an increase of 25.1%) in 2019 and 2,648 (an increase of 49.9%) in 2020. Compared with 2 years before the epidemic, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the proportion of PED visits among patients with stress disorders, sleep disorders, and anxiety disorders increased significantly. In terms of the distribution of demographic characteristics, age shows a younger trend, while the gender difference is not significant.ConclusionThese findings suggest that PED care-seeking increases during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the need to integrate mental health services for patients with stress, sleep, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorders during public health crises.

Published in Frontiers in Psychiatry

ISSN: 1664-0640 (Online)
Publisher: Frontiers Media S.A.
Country of publisher: Switzerland
LCC subjects: Medicine: Internal medicine: Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry: Neurology. Diseases of the nervous system: Psychiatry
Website: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry

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