Pandemic drove more teen girls to the emergency room for mental health issues, Harvard study says
CAMBRIDGE - A study from Harvard University found the number of teenage girls who went to the emergency room for mental health issues went up during the pandemic.
Harvard researchers looked at data on more than 4 million children ages 5 to 17 and found that in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the fraction of kids who showed up at an emergency room for mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and suicidality, increased significantly compared to the year before the pandemic started.
The increase was especially notable among teenage girls who experienced a 22 percent jump in ER visits for mental health challenges. During year two of the pandemic, children were also more likely to spend prolonged periods of time boarding in ERs waiting for space to open up in a psychiatric hospital.
There is no doubt that improvements in both outpatient and inpatient mental health care for children need to be made in order to reduce the burden on the healthcare system and families.