Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Centre de Référence des Maladies Rares à Expression Psychiatrique, Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, France; and Groupe de Recherche Clinique n 15 – Troubles Psychiatriques et Développement (PSYDEV), Faculty of Medicine, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
Anne-Sophie Pellen
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Centre de Référence des Maladies Rares à Expression Psychiatrique, Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, France; and Groupe de Recherche Clinique n 15 – Troubles Psychiatriques et Développement (PSYDEV), Faculty of Medicine, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
Hugues Pellerin
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Centre de Référence des Maladies Rares à Expression Psychiatrique, Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, France; and Groupe de Recherche Clinique n 15 – Troubles Psychiatriques et Développement (PSYDEV), Faculty of Medicine, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
Cyril Hanin
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Centre de Référence des Maladies Rares à Expression Psychiatrique, Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, France; and Groupe de Recherche Clinique n 15 – Troubles Psychiatriques et Développement (PSYDEV), Faculty of Medicine, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
Juliette Bouzy
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Centre de Référence des Maladies Rares à Expression Psychiatrique, Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, France
Marie Devernay
Unité de Médecine pour Adolescents, Armand-Trousseau Hospital, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, France
Vanessa Milhiet
Groupe de Recherche Clinique n 15 – Troubles Psychiatriques et Développement (PSYDEV), Faculty of Medicine, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France; and Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, France
Xavier Benarous
Groupe de Recherche Clinique n 15 – Troubles Psychiatriques et Développement (PSYDEV), Faculté de Médecine Sorbonne Université, Paris, France; and Department of Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, Amiens University Hospital, Amiens, France
Angèle Consoli
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Centre de Référence des Maladies Rares à Expression Psychiatrique, Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, France; and Groupe de Recherche Clinique n 15 – Troubles Psychiatriques et Développement (PSYDEV), Faculty of Medicine, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
Jianxin Shi
Biostatistics Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
Groupe de Recherche Clinique n 15 – Troubles Psychiatriques et Développement (PSYDEV), Faculty of Medicine, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France; and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
David Cohen
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Centre de Référence des Maladies Rares à Expression Psychiatrique, Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, France; Groupe de Recherche Clinique n 15 – Troubles Psychiatriques et Développement (PSYDEV), Faculty of Medicine, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France; and CNRS UMR 7222, Institute for Intelligent Systems and Robotics, Sorbonne University, Paris, France
Background Previous pandemics have had negative effects on mental health, but there are few data on children and adolescents who were receiving ongoing psychiatric treatment. Aims To study changes in emotions and clinical state, and their predictors, during the COVID-19 pandemic in France. Method We administered (by interview) the baseline Youth Self-Report version of the CoRonavIruS Health Impact Survey v0.3 (CRISIS, French translation) to 123 adolescent patients and the Parent/Caregiver version to evaluate 99 child patients before and during the first ‘lockdown’. For 139 of these patients who received ongoing treatment in our centre, treating physicians retrospectively completed longitudinal global ratings for five time periods, masked to CRISIS ratings. Results The main outcome measure was the sum of eight mood state items, which formed a single factor in each age group. Overall, this score improved for each age group during the first lockdown. Clinician ratings modestly supported this result in patients without intellectual disability or autism spectrum disorder. Improvement of mood states was significantly associated with perceived improvement in family relationships in both age groups. Conclusions Consistent with previous studies of clinical cohorts, our patients had diverse responses during the pandemic. Several factors may have contributed to the finding of improvement in some individuals during the first lockdown, including the degree of family support or conflict, stress reduction owing to isolation, limitations of the outcome measures and/or possible selection bias. Ongoing treatment may have had a protective effect. Clinically, during crises additional support may be needed by families who experience increased conflict or who care for children with intellectual disability.
