Pandemic drove more teen girls to the emergency room for mental health issues, Harvard study says

CAMBRIDGE - A study from Harvard University found the number of teenage girls who went to the emergency room for mental health issues went up during the pandemic.

Harvard researchers looked at data on more than 4 million children ages 5 to 17 and found that in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the fraction of kids who showed up at an emergency room for mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and suicidality, increased significantly compared to the year before the pandemic started.

The increase was especially notable among teenage girls who experienced a 22 percent jump in ER visits for mental health challenges. During year two of the pandemic, children were also more likely to spend prolonged periods of time boarding in ERs waiting for space to open up in a psychiatric hospital.

There is no doubt that improvements in both outpatient and inpatient mental health care for children need to be made in order to reduce the burden on the healthcare system and families.  

In:
• Health
• Mental Health
• Teenagers

Mallika Marshall, MD

Mallika Marshall, MD is an Emmy-award-winning journalist and physician who has served as the HealthWatch Reporter for CBS Boston/WBZ-TV for over 20 years. A practicing physician Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Dr. Marshall serves on staff at Harvard Medical School and practices at Massachusetts General Hospital at the MGH Chelsea Urgent Care and the MGH Revere Health Center, where she is currently working on the frontlines caring for patients with COVID-19. She is also a host and contributing editor for Harvard Health Publications (HHP), the publishing division of Harvard Medical School.

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