Maciá-Casas Ana, de la Iglesia-Larrad Javier, García-Ullán Llanyra, Refoyo-Matellán Belén, Munaiz-Cossío Clara, Díaz-Trejo Sara, Berdión-Marcos Vanesa, Calama-Martín Julia, Roncero Carlos, Pérez Jesús
Psychiatry Service, Salamanca Healthcare Complex (CAUSA), 37007 Salamanca, Spain.
Neuroscience Division, Institute of Biomedical Research of Salamanca (IBSAL), 37007 Salamanca, Spain.
Healthcare (Basel). 2024 May 9;12(10):977. doi: 10.3390/healthcare12100977.
Lockdowns and other health protective measures, such as social distancing, imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic nurtured unprecedented levels of stress and social isolation around the world. This scenario triggered an increase in suicide thoughts and self-harm behaviours among children and young people. However, the longer-term impact of the pandemic on children's and adolescents' mental health, especially with regard to self-harm, is still to be fully discovered.
We carried out a retrospective study where we collected data related to suicide ideation and self-harm behaviours in all patients aged under 18 that required on-call psychiatric services at the General Hospital Accident and Emergency (A&E) department in Salamanca, Spain, during 2019 (pre-pandemic) and in both 2021 and 2022 to capture possible variation at different time points during the post-pandemic period.
A total of 316 patients aged under 18 were seen by on-call psychiatric services at the A&E department during the three time periods: 78 in 2019, 98 in 2021 and 140 in 2022. The mean age was 15.12 (SD 2.25) and females represented more than twice the number of males each year. More than half of all patients assessed during 2022 disclosed suicide thoughts, whilst in 2019, it was near 25%. This increase in suicide ideation rates was more marked among females (X = 15.127; = 0.001), those aged over 15 (X = 16.437; < 0.001) and/or those with a previous history of mental health problems (X = 17.823; < 0.001). We identified an increase in the proportion of males with suicide ideas, especially between 2021 and 2022 (X = 8.396; = 0.015).
Our study suggests that children's and adolescents' demand for urgent mental healthcare and their clinical presentations in A&E departments with suicide thoughts and/or self-injuries do not seem to be declining after the pandemic but increasing over time. More research is warranted to understand possible factors involved in this sustained upward trend.
在新冠疫情期间实施的封锁及其他健康保护措施，如社交距离措施，在全球范围内造成了前所未有的压力水平和社会隔离状态。这种情况引发了儿童和青少年自杀念头及自我伤害行为的增加。然而，疫情对儿童和青少年心理健康的长期影响，尤其是在自我伤害方面，仍有待全面揭示。
我们开展了一项回顾性研究，收集了2019年（疫情前）以及2021年和2022年期间，西班牙萨拉曼卡综合医院急诊部所有18岁以下需要急诊精神科服务的患者与自杀意念和自我伤害行为相关的数据，以了解疫情后不同时间点可能出现的变化。
在这三个时间段内，急诊部的急诊精神科服务共接诊了316名18岁以下患者：2019年有78例，2021年有98例，2022年有140例。平均年龄为15.12岁（标准差2.25），每年女性患者人数是男性患者的两倍多。2022年接受评估的所有患者中，超过一半透露有自杀念头，而在2019年这一比例接近25%。自杀意念发生率的这种上升在女性（X = 15.127；P = 0.001）、15岁以上人群（X = 16.437；P < 0.001）和/或有心理健康问题既往史的人群（X = 17.823；P < 0.001）中更为明显。我们发现有自杀想法的男性比例有所增加，尤其是在2021年至2022年期间（X = 8.396；P = 0.015）。
我们的研究表明，疫情后儿童和青少年对紧急心理医疗保健的需求以及他们在急诊部出现自杀念头和/或自我伤害行为的临床表现似乎并未下降，而是随时间推移有所增加。有必要开展更多研究以了解这一持续上升趋势中可能涉及的因素。
