ArticleActa psychiatrica Scandinavica2021
Psychiatric Admissions, Referrals, and Suicidal Behavior Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Denmark: A Time-Trend Study.
Article in Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 65 citations in OpenAlex.
- Utilization of mental health services during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic - a systematic review and meta-analysis.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2026Pooled it
- Access and use of general and mental health services before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ open · 2025Pooled it
- Outcome and cost-effectiveness of transdiagnostic cognitive behavioral therapy compared with management as usual for youth with common mental health problems: Long-term results from the Mind-My-Mind randomized trial.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Trial
- Evolving trends in psychiatric emergency services in Southern China: a seven-year retrospective analysis.International journal of emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Changes in psychiatric admissions in the first year of COVID-19 in Ontario, Canada.International journal of mental health systems · 2025Article
- Article
- The iceberg model of suicidal ideation and behaviour in Danish adolescents: integration of national registry and self-reported data within a national birth cohort.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Article
- Patterns of psychiatric healthcare use during pandemic times among boys and girls with pre-existing diagnoses: a Norwegian nationwide primary and specialist healthcare registry study.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Psychiatric Service Use Among Psychiatric Outpatients.Turk psikiyatri dergisi = Turkish journal of psychiatry · 2025Article
- Risk of admission to hospital for self-harm after admission to hospital for COVID-19: French nationwide longitudinal study.BJPsych open · 2024Article
- Outpatient mental health care during high incidence phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany - changes in utilization, challenges and post-COVID care.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2024Article
- The development of suicide risk in people with severe mental disorders during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic: a claims-based cohort study.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2024Article
- Scoping review on prevention of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in adolescents: methods, effectiveness and future directions.Frontiers in child and adolescent psychiatry · 2024Review
- Suicide Attempt Violence: Gender Differences, Diagnosis and Psychiatric Care Seeking in Mexico City.Consortium psychiatricum · 2024Article
- Adult Psychiatric Hospitalizations in Ontario, Canada Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie · 2023Article
- Changes to healthcare utilisation and symptoms for common mental health problems over the first 21 months of the COVID-19 pandemic: parallel analyses of electronic health records and survey data in England.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2023Article
- SARS-CoV-2 and risk of psychiatric hospital admission and use of psychopharmaceuticals: A nationwide registry study of 4,585,083 adult Danish citizens.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2023Article
- A Comprehensive Examination of Pediatric Behavioral Health Service Demand and Utilization in a Large, Academic Health System from 2019 to 2021.The Psychiatric quarterly · 2023Article
- The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Management of Mental Health Services for Hospitalized Patients in Sibiu County-Central Region, Romania.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- [Suicide attempt before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: A comparative study from the emergency department].Semergen · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo assess the patterns in psychiatric admissions, referrals, and suicidal behavior before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
methodsThis study utilized health records from hospitals and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) covering 46% of the Danish population (n = 2,693,924). In a time-trend study, we compared the number of psychiatric in-patients, referrals to mental health services and suicidal behavior in years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic to levels during the first lockdown (March 11 - May 17, 2020), inter-lockdown period (May 18 - December 15, 2020), and second lockdown (December 16, 2020 - February 28, 2021).
resultsDuring the pandemic, the rate of psychiatric in-patients declined compared to pre-pandemic levels (RR = 0.95, 95% CI = 0.94 - 0.96, p < 0.01), with the largest decrease of 19% observed three weeks into the first lockdown. Referrals to mental health services were not significantly different (RR = 1.01, 95% CI = 0.92 - 1.10, p = 0.91) during the pandemic; neither was suicidal behavior among hospital contacts (RR = 1.04, 95% CI = 0.94 - 1.14, p = 0.48) nor EMS contacts (RR = 1.08, 95% CI = 1.00 - 1.18, p = 0.06). Similar trends were observed across nearly all age groups, sexes, and types of mental disorders examined. In the age group <18, an increase in the rate of psychiatric in-patients (RR = 1.11, 95% CI = 1.07 - 1.15, p < 0.01) was observed during the pandemic; however, this did not exceed the pre-pandemic, upwards trend in psychiatric hospitalizations in the age group <18 (p = 0.78).
conclusionThe COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with a decrease in psychiatric hospitalizations, while no significant change was observed in referrals to mental health services and suicidal behavior. Psychiatric hospitalizations among children and adolescents increased during the pandemic; however, this appears to be a continuation of a pre-pandemic trend.
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