Voluntary drug intoxication in adolescents: impact of COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Introduction and Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic caused social isolation and disruption of routines, with an increase in psychiatric symptoms in adolescents, namely suicide attempts. Voluntary drug intoxication is the most common form of attempted suicide in young people. Our objective was to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic in cases of voluntary drug intoxication in adolescents. Methods: A retrospective study conducted on adolescents admitted to the Pediatric Emergency Department for voluntary drug intoxication between January 2020 and June 2021. We defined a pre-COVID period: January/2019-February/2020, and COVID period: March/2020-June/2021. Results: There were 64 admissions for voluntary drug intoxication in a total of 50 adolescents, 76.0% of whom were female. The mean age was 15.6 ± 1.6 years. There were 19 intoxications in the pre-COVID period (1.4 cases/month) and 45 in the COVID period (2.8 cases/month). Most commonly used drugs were paracetamol (23.4%), alprazolam (21.9%) and sertraline (20.3%), with 39.1% of intoxications using more than 1 drug. In 59.4% it was the first voluntary drug intoxication. A trigger was identified in 75.0% of cases. There was previous follow-up in Child Psychiatry in 67.2% of cases. In the COVID period there was an increase of other coexisting self-harming behaviors (p = 0.017) and fewer urgent transfers to Child Psychiatry (p = 0.002). Male sex was associated with older age (p < 0.001) and familiar instability (p = 0.004). Discussion: There was a two-fold increase of voluntary drug intoxication during the pandemic, consistent with the literature on its impact on young people’s mental health, which reinforces the importance of preventive action in adolescents at risk.

Keywords

• Adolescent. COVID-19. Drug overdose.