Mental health in children and adolescents during the pandemic year 2020: Results from a department of child and adolescent psychiatry in Romania

Abstract

Introduction Infectious diseases can disrupt the environment in which children live and have negative consequences for the well-being, development and mental health of this population. Objectives Our aim is to compare the number and diagnoses of patients admitted during the first COVID-19 pandemic year to patients admitted during the same period in the previous year. Methods Retrospective observational study of patients admitted between March 1, 2020 and February 29, 2021 and the analogous period of 2019-2020 in a child psychiatry unit. Microsoft Excel was used for descriptive statistics. Results In our first pandemic year, there were 47.9% less admissions to our inpatient unit (n=717), comparing to the previous year (n=1376). Regarding the outpatient-type evaluations, there were 37.7% more admissions than the previous year (n=1813). Considering the fact that the number of inpatiens was limited in 2020 due to the restrictive measures imposed, most of our patients were consulted on an outpatient basis. During the 5 weeks nationwide lockdown, 72 children were consulted, 42.8% representing psychiatry emergencies. Regarding the diagnoses made in the whole pandemic year, disorders of psychological development were the most common, with almost half of the total of admissions (44.4%). The number of autistic outpatients in the pandemic year (n=1004) was almost double than the one before (n=572). Conclusions Even though there was a reduction of admissions to the child psychiatry inpatient unit during the first pandemic year, we did not identify major differences regarding the discharge diagnoses comparing to the year before. Disclosure No significant relationships.

Keywords

• Covid-19
• mental health
• Children