ArticleJournal of health services research & policy2023
Locked down or locked out? Trends in psychiatric emergency services utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in Journal of health services research & policy, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mental Health Care Disparities Among US Pregnant Individuals in 2020-2021: A Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2026Article
- Evolving trends in psychiatric emergency services in Southern China: a seven-year retrospective analysis.International journal of emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Trends in psychiatric emergency visits: insights from France's largest psychiatric emergency department.International journal of emergency medicine · 2025Article
- International comparison of hospitalizations and emergency department visits related to mental health conditions across high-income countries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.Health services research · 2024Observational
- The impact of COVID-19 on mental health service utilisation in England.SSM. Mental health · 2023Article
- Demographic predictors of emergency service utilization patterns in youth at risk of suicide.Suicide & life-threatening behavior · 2023Article
- Psychiatric Boarding Patterns Among Publicly Insured Youths Evaluated by Mobile Crisis Teams Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.JAMA network open · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo estimate changes in Boston Emergency Services Team (BEST) psychiatric emergency services (PES) encounter volume (total and by care team) and inpatient disposition during the first 8 months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
methodsData on 30,657 PES encounters was extracted from the four-county, BEST reporting system. The study period consisted of the first 34 weeks of 2019 and 2020. This period corresponded to the first five stages of Massachusetts's COVID-19 public health restrictions: pre-lockdown, lockdown, Phase I, II and III reopenings. Descriptive and regression analyses were performed to estimate changes in encounter volume by care team and disposition.
resultsCompared to the same period in 2019, covariate-adjusted, weekly PES encounters decreased by 39% (β = -0.40, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) = [-0.51, -0.28],
conclusionsThe overall drop in PES utilization and the rise in inpatient admissions for MCT encounters suggests that during the early phases of the pandemic, patients delayed psychiatric care until they had a psychiatric crisis. Public health messaging about the lockdowns and absent equivalent messaging about the availability of telehealth services may have made patients more reluctant to seek psychiatric care.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.