Mental health of children and young people during pandemic

Ford, Tamsin; John, Ann; Gunnell, David

doi:10.1136/bmj.n614

Cited by 169 publications

(174 citation statements)

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“…The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures taken to control its spread have wreaked havoc worldwide, resulting in more than 3 million deaths and forcing billions of people into isolation, profoundly affecting all aspects of daily life. Numerous studies have reported on the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis on mental health [ 1 ], but few have focused on children and adolescents [ 2 , 3 ].…”

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confidence: 99%

Perceived impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on child and adolescent psychiatric services after 1 year (February/March 2021): ESCAP CovCAP survey

Revet

Hebebrand

Anagnostopoulos

et al. 2021

Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry

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In April 2020, the European Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (ESCAP) Research Academy and the ESCAP Board launched the first questionnaire of the CovCAP longitudinal survey to estimate the impact of COVID-19 on child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP) services in Europe. In this brief report, we present the main findings from the second questionnaire of the survey, one year after the COVID-19 pandemic began to hit Europe (i.e., February/March 2021). While service delivery to patients and their families was affected in a major way (reported by 68%) at the beginning of the pandemic, the majority of respondents (59%) in this second survey only reported a minor impact on care delivery. The use of telemedicine remained widespread (91%) but the proportion of CAP services partially closed or transformed to accommodate COVID-19 patients (59% in 2020) dropped to 20%. On the other hand, the perceived impact on the mental health and psychopathology of children and adolescents dramatically increased from “medium” (> 50%) in 2020 to “strong” or “extreme” (80%) in 2021. Four nosographic entities were particularly impacted: suicidal crises, anxiety disorders, eating disorders and major depressive episodes. Accordingly, this was associated with a substantial increase in the number of referrals or requests for assessments (91% reported an increase in 2021 while 61% reported a decrease in 2020). Finally, heads of the CAP departments expressed strong concerns regarding the management of the long-term consequences of this crisis, especially regarding the provision of care in light of the perceived increase in referrals. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00787-021-01851-1.

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confidence: 99%

Perceived impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on child and adolescent psychiatric services after 1 year (February/March 2021): ESCAP CovCAP survey

Revet

Hebebrand

Anagnostopoulos

et al. 2021

Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry

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“…There were falls in primary care presentation for self-harm in 10-17 year olds in the early months of the pandemic although rates returned to pre-pandemic levels by September 2020 [18]. However, community surveys have suggested a rise in mental ill-health [4].…”

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confidence: 99%

Child Suicide Rates During the COVID-19 pandemic in England

Odd

Williams

Appleby

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Background: There is concern about the impact of COVID-19, and the control measures to prevent the spread, on children's mental health. The aim of this work was to identify if there had been a rise of childhood suicide during the COVID pandemic; using data from England's National Child Mortality Database (NCMD). Method: Child suicide rates between April to December 2020 were compared with those in 2019 using negative binomial regression models, and characteristics compared. In a subset (1st January to 17th May 2020) further characteristics and possible contributing factors were obtained. Results: A total of 193 likely childhood deaths by suicide were reported. There was no evidence overall suicide deaths were higher in 2020 than 2019 (RR 1.09 (0.80-1.48), p=0.584) but weak evidence that the rate in the first lockdown period (April to May 2020) was higher than the corresponding period in 2019 (RR 1.56 (0.86-2.81), p=0.144). Characteristics of individuals were similar between periods. Restriction to education and other activities, disruption to care and support services, tensions at home and isolation appeared to be contributing factors. Limitations: As child suicides are fortunately rare, the analysis is based on small numbers of deaths with limited statistical power to detect anything but major increases in incidence. Conclusion: We found no consistent evidence that child suicide deaths increased during the COVID-19 pandemic although there was a concerning signal they may have increased during the first UK lockdown. A similar peak was not seen during the following months, or the second lockdown.

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“…Most concerning to both CAP trainers and trainees were reports of increased inequality as the effect of school-closures was found to be most severe in those from lower income families. In England, a prevalence survey confirmed that children and young people living in households experiencing financial or food insecurity were also more likely to have a mental health condition [ 25 ],the financial insecurity experienced by many families during the pandemic has further exacerbated any pre-existing inequalities [ 10 ].…”

Section: Unequal Effects Of Social Distancing On Mental Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%