The proportion of youths and young adults visiting hospital emergency rooms for emotional crises doubled during the decade leading into COVID-19, with suicide-related visits increasing fivefold, a study has found.
Four researchers published the study Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, examining nationally representative data on patients ages 6-24 from an annual survey of pediatric emergency departments.
It found that the weighted number of youths visiting the ER for psychiatric illnesses, drug abuse and alcohol addiction grew from 4.8 million (7.7% of all visits) to 7.5 million (13.1% of all visits) from 2011 to 2020. Visits increased annually by an average of 8% over that time.
The study noted that visits for all types of mental illness “significantly increased,” but suicide-related visits spiked the most, from 0.9% of all ER treatments in 2011 to 4.2% in 2020. That adds up to an average increase of 23.1% each year.
“These findings underscore an urgent need to improve crisis and emergency mental health service capacity for young people, especially for children experiencing suicidal symptoms,” the researchers wrote.
The study echoes the national state of emergency in children’s mental health that several leading health organizations declared in 2021, they added.
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The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Children’s Hospital Association noted in that declaration a pandemic-era spike in “all mental health emergencies including suspected suicide attempts” among children.
The declaration said COVID-19 restrictions and the deaths of loved ones from COVID-19 “intensified” existing challenges such as “inequities that result from structural racism,” hitting the children of minorities the hardest.
Some mental health experts say a dramatic increase in smartphone ownership among teenagers during the 2011-2020 study period likely played a major role in driving more youths to think about or attempt suicide.
Social media has replaced the religious faith, stable family life and traditional morals that once guided many children, said Ray Guarendi, a family psychologist in North Canton, Ohio. The author of several parenting books and father of 10 adopted children pointed to research showing that 2012 was the first year that more than half of all teens owned a smartphone.
“Kids are miserable, they’re discontent, they’re unhappy, and social media is filling in the holes of what stable parenting and family life used to do,” Mr. Guarendi told The Washington Times. “All the research coming out says social media is bad for the psyche of children.”
Four senators last week introduced a bipartisan bill that would ban children from using social media and prevent children younger than 13 from accessing tech platforms out of safety concerns.
The proposed Protecting Kids on Social Media Act would require parental consent for teenagers 13 through 17 to use social media apps and restrict tech companies from using algorithmic recommendations to show content to anyone younger than 18.
The federal proposal follows state-level laws recently enacted in Arkansas and Utah. Arkansas’ state law intends to stop social media companies from providing accounts to children younger than 18 unless the child has parental consent and their age is verified.
Utah’s restrictions similarly require age verification and parental consent. The rules also carry a curfew to stop children younger than 18 from using the platforms between 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m.
Pornhub told Utah residents on Monday that the pornographic website has blocked their access entirely rather than comply with the state law.
Several other federal proposals to limit children’s access to social media are pending in Congress. Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican, has proposed blocking social media for children younger than 16.
The authors of the JAMA study published Tuesday pointed to other studies showing rises in youth suicide rates and teenagers reporting persistent sadness or hopelessness in recent years.
Of the roughly 1 in 5 children who experience mental illness nationwide each year, an estimated half go untreated, the authors noted.
According to the study, the share of youth mental health visits to ERs remained “relatively stable” from 2019 to 2020, when fewer people visited hospitals for non-COVID medical services.
As data from 2021 and 2022 becomes available, it will be important to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted these trends, the researchers wrote.
Some medical experts said mental health indicators have worsened since the study was conducted, particularly exacerbated by COVID-19 restrictions.
“The cascading impact of the pandemic on the mental health of children occurred amidst an ongoing decade-long rise in mental health ED visits and compounded an ongoing problem,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “Having a proactive pandemic response is critical to avoid exacerbating already existing health problems that only get worse when pandemic disruptions ensue.”
Pandemic restrictions that isolated young people at home amid growing crime, social unrest and economic troubles have turned a worsening mental health situation into “an unprecedented crisis,” said clinical psychologist Thomas Plante, a member of the American Psychological Association.
“We are in a mental health tsunami in that anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and suicidal ideation and behavior is exploding, especially among youth,” said Mr. Plante, who teaches at Santa Clara University in California. “The pandemic made these trends worse with social isolation, school closures and increasing stress within society in multiple ways.”
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
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