ArticleChild and adolescent psychiatry and mental health2024
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on rates of adolescents receiving psychopharmacological medication in Austria.
Article in Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Change of antidepressant utilization in children, adolescents and young adults in Europe before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- The COVID-19 pandemic's impact on psychotropic medication prescriptions for children and adolescents: a scoping review of quantitative longitudinal studies.Annals of general psychiatry · 2026Review
- Psychotropic drug prescriptions in adolescents before and after the COVID-19 pandemic in Lombardy region, Italy.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2026Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on antidepressant use in eleven European regions: a comparative time series analysis 2018-2022.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- Changes in youth public psychiatric service utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy: an observational study.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Article
- Placental and fetal consequences of maternal selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor use: current evidence and unresolved questions.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Review
- Off-label drug use in children and adolescents treated with antidepressants and antipsychotics: results from a prospective multicenter trial.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2025Article
- Child and adolescent mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic: an overview of key findings from a thematic series.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2025Review
- Editorial: Psychotropic overprescribing to youth: scope of the problem, causes, and possible solutions.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many aspects of everyday life, including the (mental) healthcare system. An increase in depression and anxiety symptoms has been reported worldwide, and is particularly pronounced in females and young people. We aimed to evaluate changes in prescription rates for psychopharmacological medication, which is often used to treat depression and anxiety.
methodBased on data from the Austrian public health insurance institutions, we conducted an interrupted time series analysis of antidepressants and antipsychotics, comparing prescription rate developments before and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic (2013 to 2021), with a special focus on adolescents (10-19 years) in comparison to the general population. Data were based on all public prescriptions in the outpatient sector nationwide. Age- and sex-stratified time-series models were fitted to the pre-COVID period (first quarter (Q1) of 2013 to second quarter (Q2) of 2020). These were used to generate forecasts for the period from the third quarter (Q3) of 2020 to the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2021, which were subsequently compared to observed developments in order to assess significant deviations from the forecasted development paths.
resultsFor the majority of the evaluated period, we found a significant excess of antidepressant prescriptions among both male and female adolescents (10-14 and 15-19 years) compared to the forecasted development path, while the general population was mostly within 97.5% confidence intervals of the forecasts. Regarding antipsychotics, the interrupted time series analysis revealed a significant excess in the group of female adolescents in almost all quarters, which was especially pronounced in the 15-19 age group. Prescription rates of antipsychotics in the general population only showed a significant excess in two quarters.
conclusionIncreased rates of adolescents receiving psychopharmacological treatment echo the epidemiological trends of an increase in depression and anxiety symptoms reported in the literature. This increase is especially pronounced in female adolescents.
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