Citation

Petruzzelli MG, Furente F, Colacicco G, Annecchini F, Margari A, Gabellone A, Margari L, Matera E. J. Clin. Med. 2022; 11(20).

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/jcm11206177

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Although the COVID-19 pandemic had profound consequences on youths' mental health, few data are available about its longitudinal implications.

METHOD: In this study, from 655 counseling requests by the Emergency Room (ER) of the University Hospital of Bari, we retrospectively examined 380 requests for psychiatric counseling of pediatric subjects, during the pre-pandemic, the first pandemic, and the second pandemic wave of COVID-19.

RESULTS: We found a significant upward trend between 2019 and 2021 for the counseling requests for acute psychopathological symptoms (p = 1.469 × 10−5), patients in adolescent age (p = 0.022), females (p = 0.004), and those taking psychotropic medications (p = 2.28 × 10−5). Moreover, a significant difference in the proportions of depression (p = 0.003), post traumatic (p = 0.047), somatic (p = 0.007) and psychotic symptoms (p = 0.048), and self-injuring behaviors (p = 0.044) was observed. The proportion of counseling for psychotic symptoms (p = 0.014) and self-injuring behaviors (p = 0.035) also showed an increasing trend over time, with self-harming behaviors becoming more severe and diversified in modalities.

DISCUSSION: The pandemic's persistence over time may have had an impact on youth's psychopathology, influencing the frequency, type, and complexity of mental health problems; as a result, it is vital to implement timely integrated interventions and find strategies to prevent self-harm, in particular with the identification of vulnerable categories of patients. © 2022 by the authors.

Language: en

Keywords

adolescent; human; age; mental health; child; female; male; self-harm; depression; pandemic; anxiety; psychosis; suicide attempt; drug abuse; comparative study; major clinical study; mental disease; retrospective study; consultation; automutilation; psychotropic agent; somatization; feeding behavior; patient counseling; university hospital; Article; sociodemographics; coronavirus disease 2019; COVID-19 pandemic; adolescents’ mental health