ArticleJAMA psychiatry2023
Trends in Acute Care Use for Mental Health Conditions Among Youth During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Article in JAMA psychiatry, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers.
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Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed.
- A Research Agenda for Acute Pediatric Mental and Behavioral Health Emergencies.Annals of emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Hospitalizations of Adolescents with Psychiatric Disorders in a Pediatric Unit: A 10-Year Retrospective Study.Pediatric reports · 2026Article
- Prevalence and costs of US pediatric hospitalizations, 2022.Journal of hospital medicine · 2026Article
- Current and Desired Behavioral Health Resources for Children: A Survey of Illinois Emergency Departments.Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open · 2026Article
- Patterns of emergency care utilization among First Nations residents of Wood Buffalo, Alberta, during public health crises: An interrupted time series analysis.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2026Article
- Hospitalizations and Mortality Among Medicare Beneficiaries at Cardiovascular Risk: Disruptions and Recovery From the COVID-19 Pandemic.Journal of the American College of Cardiology · 2026Article
- Effect of School Reopenings on Children's Mental Health During COVID-19: Quasi-experimental Evidence from California.Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Article
- Effects of Psychiatric Inpatient or Residential Care on Service Use After Psychiatric Emergency Department Boarding.Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.) · 2026Article
- The hidden pandemic: changes in outpatient mental health care among French children and adolescents.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Article
- Changes in youth public psychiatric service utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy: an observational study.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Article
- Examining Secular Changes in Health Risk Behavior Profiles and Their Associations With Mental Distress During Adolescence.International journal of public health · 2026Article
- Article
- Slipping Through the Cracks: Identifying Families At-Risk of Not Engaging with Mental Health Care Within a Specialty Anxiety Clinic.The journal of behavioral health services & research · 2025Article
- Comparison of the long-term outcome of home vs. inpatient treatment: 18-24 months follow-up of a non-randomized controlled trial.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Article
- Variations in Psychiatric Emergency Department Boarding for Medicaid-Enrolled Youths.JAMA health forum · 2025Article
- Pediatric Mental Health Boarding in US Emergency Departments, 2018-2022.Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open · 2025Article
- Association of Medicaid Accountable Care Organizations and postpartum mental health care utilization.Health services research · 2025Article
- Trends in Emergency Department, Primary Care, and Behavioral Health Use for Pediatric Mental Health Conditions in Virginia before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.BMC primary care · 2025Article
- Quality Improvement for Pediatric Acute Mental Health Care: Opportunities and Challenges.Pediatrics · 2025Article
- Decreasing Agitation in Neurodiverse Patients with Mental Health Concerns.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2024Article
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6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Importance: Understanding how children's utilization of acute mental health care changed during the COVID-19 pandemic is critical for directing resources. Objective: To examine youth acute mental health care use (emergency department [ED], boarding, and subsequent inpatient care) during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional analysis of national, deidentified commercial health insurance claims of youth mental health ED and hospital care took place between March 2019 and February 2022. Among 4.1 million commercial insurance enrollees aged 5 to 17 years, 17 614 and 16 815 youth had at least 1 mental health ED visit in the baseline year (March 2019-February 2020) and pandemic year 2 (March 2021-February 2022), respectively. Exposure: The COVID-19 pandemic. Main outcomes and measures: The relative change from baseline to pandemic year 2 was determined in (1) fraction of youth with 1 or more mental health ED visits; (2) percentage of mental health ED visits resulting in inpatient psychiatry admission; (3) mean length of inpatient psychiatric stay following ED visit; and (4) frequency of prolonged boarding (≥2 midnights) in the ED or a medical unit before admission to an inpatient psychiatric unit. Results: Of 4.1 million enrollees, 51% were males and 41% were aged 13 to 17 years (vs 5-12 years) with 88 665 mental health ED visits. Comparing baseline to pandemic year 2, there was a 6.7% increase in youth with any mental health ED visits (95% CI, 4.7%-8.8%). Among adolescent females, there was a larger increase (22.1%; 95% CI, 19.2%-24.9%). The fraction of ED visits that resulted in a psychiatric admission increased by 8.4% (95% CI, 5.5%-11.2%). Mean length of inpatient psychiatric stay increased 3.8% (95% CI, 1.8%-5.7%). The fraction of episodes with prolonged boarding increased 76.4% (95% CI, 71.0%-81.0%). Conclusions and relevance: Into the second year of the pandemic, mental health ED visits increased notably among adolescent females, and there was an increase in prolonged boarding of youth awaiting inpatient psychiatric care. Interventions are needed to increase inpatient child psychiatry capacity and reduce strain on the acute mental health care system.
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