Clinical Medicine Department. Universidad Miguel Hernández, Ctra. de Valencia, Km 87, 03550, San Juan, Alicante, Spain; Department of Psychiatry. Hospital Universitario de San Juan, Ctra, N-332, S/n, 03550, San Juan, Alicante, Spain; CIBERSAM-ISCIII (Biomedical Research Networking Centre in Mental Health), Spain.
CIBERSAM-ISCIII (Biomedical Research Networking Centre in Mental Health), Spain; Universidad Europea de Madrid, Madrid, Spain; Department of Psychiatry. Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Hospital 12 de Octubre (imas12), Av. Córdoba S/n, 28041, Madrid, Spain.
J Psychiatr Res. 2023 Jul;163:63-67. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2023.04.014. Epub 2023 Apr 29.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the mental health of the youngest, worsening their emotional well-being. The demand for care in psychiatric emergencies may indirectly reflect the mental health state of children and adolescents and the emotional consequences of the pandemic. Moreover, suicidality can be considered a marker of severity in this population group. Therefore, we have aimed to longitudinally describe the number of children and adolescents attended in the psychiatry emergency department due to suicidal ideation or attempts and, to explore differences in suicidality according to gender and age. A retrospective study was carried out in the University Hospital of San Juan, Alicante, Spain, from January 01, 2018 to December 31, 2021. A total of 138 participants under 18 years requesting psychiatric care due to suicidal ideation or attempts were included. The sample was composed by 35% of males and the mean age was 14.8 years old (SD = 2.2). The number of cases per year range from 10 in 2018 to 88 in 2021. Attendances were significantly higher between 2021 and the three previous years. Besides, the number of attentions registered in the last 9 months of 2021 equals those that occurred in the entire previous period. Most of the cases were girls and middle adolescents. Suicide ideation or attempts have skyrocketed in children and adolescents. This alarming increase presents a one-year lag peak from the COVID-19 outbreak and continues until the end of 2021. Girls and those over 12 years have been identified as risk groups to present suicidal ideation or attempts.
新冠疫情对最年轻人群的心理健康产生了影响，导致他们的情绪健康恶化。精神科急诊就诊需求可能间接地反映了儿童和青少年的心理健康状况，以及疫情带来的情绪后果。此外，自杀意念可以被视为该人群严重程度的一个标志。因此，我们旨在纵向描述因自杀意念或自杀企图而在精神科急诊就诊的儿童和青少年人数，并探讨性别和年龄差异对自杀意念的影响。这是一项在西班牙阿利坎特圣胡安大学医院进行的回顾性研究，时间跨度为 2018 年 1 月 1 日至 2021 年 12 月 31 日。共有 138 名因自杀意念或自杀企图而寻求精神科护理的 18 岁以下参与者被纳入研究。样本中男性占 35%，平均年龄为 14.8 岁（标准差=2.2）。每年的病例数从 2018 年的 10 例到 2021 年的 88 例不等。与前三年相比，2021 年的就诊人数明显增加。此外，2021 年最后 9 个月登记的就诊人数与前一年的就诊总人数相当。大多数病例是女孩和青春期中期的青少年。儿童和青少年的自杀意念或自杀企图急剧增加。这种令人震惊的增长与新冠疫情爆发后出现了一年的滞后高峰，并持续到 2021 年底。女孩和 12 岁以上的青少年已被确定为有自杀意念或自杀企图的高危群体。
