Valtuille Zaba, Trebossen Vincent, Ouldali Naim, Huguet Michael, Peyre Hugo, Delorme Richard, Kaguelidou Florentia
Center of Clinical Investigations, APHP.Nord, INSERM CIC1426, Robert Debré University Hospital, Paris, France.
Paris Cité University, UMR-S 1343 Perinatal and Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutic Assessment, Paris, France.
Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2025 Sep 8. doi: 10.1007/s00787-025-02847-x.
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly worsened mental health (MH) challenges among young people. We aimed to assess changes in mental health-related outpatient care before and after the onset of the pandemic. In this nationwide cross-sectional study, we retrieved visits to general practitioners (GP) resulting in the coding of a MH disorder and/or the prescribing of any psychotropic medication for children aged 6 to 17 years, from January 1, 2016 to May 31, 2022 in France. Interrupted time series analysis of monthly rates of MH-related outpatient visits (per 100,000) was conducted to assess changes in trends overall and by age and sex group (girls/boys- 6 to 11 years; girls/boys- 12 to 17 years). Rate ratios (RR) were also calculated to compare estimated rates after the pandemic onset with expected rates. In total, 5,271,958 MH-related outpatient visits were analyzed. We noted an immediate decrease of the outpatient visit rate by 30.8% in the initial pandemic period (March-May 2020). Hereafter, visit rates increased by 0.4% per month, eventually exceeding expected levels by 6% overall. Notably, outpatient visit rates for adolescent girls (12-17 years) rose 20% above expected levels, while rates for younger girls (6-11 years) declined by 6%. Trends remained stable for other age-sex groups. These findings indicate a persistent increase in outpatient mental healthcare use in children, especially adolescent girls, more than two years after the pandemic onset. Future research should explore the factors contributing to the increased mental health burden in adolescent girls and the potential resilience observed in boys.
新冠疫情显著加剧了年轻人的心理健康挑战。我们旨在评估疫情暴发前后心理健康相关门诊护理的变化情况。在这项全国性横断面研究中，我们检索了2016年1月1日至2022年5月31日期间法国6至17岁儿童因心理健康障碍编码和/或开具任何精神药物而到全科医生处就诊的记录。对心理健康相关门诊就诊月率（每10万人）进行中断时间序列分析，以评估总体趋势以及按年龄和性别组（6至11岁女孩/男孩；12至17岁女孩/男孩）的变化情况。还计算了率比（RR），以比较疫情暴发后的估计率与预期率。总共分析了5271958次心理健康相关门诊就诊。我们注意到在疫情初期（2020年3月至5月）门诊就诊率立即下降了30.8%。此后，就诊率每月增长0.4%，最终总体超过预期水平6%。值得注意的是，青少年女孩（12至17岁）的门诊就诊率比预期水平高出20%，而年幼女孩（6至11岁）的就诊率下降了6%。其他年龄 - 性别组的趋势保持稳定。这些发现表明，在疫情暴发两年多后，儿童尤其是青少年女孩的门诊心理保健使用持续增加。未来的研究应探讨导致青少年女孩心理健康负担增加的因素以及男孩中观察到的潜在恢复力。
