TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2022//
TI  - One year of psychiatric presentations to a hospital emergency department during COVID-19
JO  - Irish journal of psychological medicine
A1  - Hartnett, Yvonne
A1  - Alshurafa, Khadija
A1  - McAndrew, Joseph
A1  - Daly, Darren
A1  - Alsaffar, Mohamed
A1  - Cotter, David
A1  - Cannon, Mary
A1  - Machale, Siobhan
A1  - Murphy, Kieran C.
A1  - Barry, Helen
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - OBJECTIVES: To examine the impact of the first full year of the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated restrictions on the volume and nature of psychiatric presentations to an emergency department (ED) in a large academic hospital. <br><br>METHODS: Anonymised clinical data on psychiatric presentations to the ED were collected for the 52-week period from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and compared with corresponding 1 year periods in 2019 and 2018. <br><br>RESULTS: There was a significant increase in psychiatric presentations overall to the ED during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to previous years, in contrast to a reduction in total presentations for all other specialties. There was a marked increase in psychiatric presentations of those below 18 years, and in the 30-39 years and 40-49 years age groups, but a decrease in the 18-29 years group. There was a significant increase in anxiety disorder presentations but a decrease in alcohol related presentations. There was no significant change observed in the rates of presentations for self-harm or suicidal ideation. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Psychiatric presentations to the ED have increased during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in contrast to a decrease in presentations for other medical specialties, with this increase being driven by out-of-hours presentations. The fourfold increase in presentations of young people below the age of 18 years to the ED with mental health difficulties is an important finding and suggests a disproportionate burden of psychological strain placed on this group during the pandemic.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0790-9667
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ipm.2022.6
ID  - ref1
ER  -