ArticleCMAJ open
Psychiatric inpatient services in Ontario, 2019-2021: a cross-sectional comparison of admissions, diagnoses and acuity during the COVID-19 prerestriction, restriction and postrestriction periods.
Article in CMAJ open. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- The long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental and psychiatric service utilization in Iran: a 7-year longitudinal study from 2017 to 2024.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Profile of male acute admissions at a state psychiatric hospital in the Western Cape, South Africa.The South African journal of psychiatry : SAJP : the journal of the Society of Psychiatrists of South Africa · 2026Article
- Factors associated with seclusion and restraint on admission to forensic psychiatric hospitals: A 10-year retrospective study.PloS one · 2025Article
- Quantifying institutional-level length of stay variation among hospitalizations for schizophrenia in Ontario between 2014-2021.PLOS mental health · 2025Article
- Adult psychiatric inpatient admissions and length of stay before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in a large urban hospital setting in Vancouver, British Columbia.Frontiers in health services · 2024Article
- Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
backgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic was associated with increased mental health problems in the general population, yet psychiatric hospital admissions decreased. Early evidence suggested that psychiatric admissions normalized within weeks; we sought to examine the longer-lasting impacts on the psychiatric inpatient population beyond this initial period.
methodsWe compared Ontario Mental Health Reporting System admission data for patients admitted to 8 psychiatric hospitals in Ontario, Canada, between 3 time periods - before restrictions were imposed (June 22, 2019, to Mar. 16, 2020), during restrictions (Mar. 17 to June 21, 2020) and after restrictions were lifted (June 22, 2020, to Mar. 16, 2021) for changes in involuntary status, diagnoses and clinical presentation using descriptive analysis. For clinical presentation, we extracted scores on 4 Resident Assessment Instrument-Mental Health symptom scales (Depressive Severity Index, Cognitive Performance Scale, Positive Symptoms Scale-Long Version and Social Withdrawal Scale), and 2 behaviour scales (Aggressive Behavior Scale and Violence Sum).
resultsA cross-sectional sample of 9848 patients was included in the analysis. The mean number of daily admissions decreased 19% from 16.4 (standard deviation [SD] 8.0) before the restriction period to 13.3 (SD 6.1) during the restriction period, and was still 6% below prerestriction levels after restrictions were lifted 15.4 (SD 6.8), with standard error difference of 1.03 (95% confidence interval -0.22 to 2.29). From the pre- to the postrestriction periods, the proportion of involuntary patients increased by 6 percentage points, and the proportions of patients diagnosed with a psychotic disorder or personality disorder increased by 4 percentage points and 1 percentage point, respectively.
interpretationPsychiatric admissions did not fully return to prerestriction levels in absolute rates and patient acuity after COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. Psychiatric services must prepare to appraise and respond to any increased acuity through interventions for patients, workforce planning and mental health support for staff.
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