According to new data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), emergency rooms across the country saw an increase in visits by teenage girls with eating disorders and other disorders.
The report gives new information about the types of mental health problems that affect adolescents.
Experts in mental healthcare believe that the pandemic made some youth feel isolated, lonely, and out-of control. Some coped by seeking to have control over their own behavior, said Emily Pluhar, a pediatric psychologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and instructor at Harvard Medical School.
“You take a very vulnerable group and put on a global pandemic,” she said. “The eating disorders are out of control.”
The C.D.C. study, the agency said that the proportion of eating disorder visits doubled among teenage girls, set off by pandemic-related risk factors, like the “lack of structure in daily routine, emotional distress and changes in food availability.”
The agency said that the increase in tic disorders was “atypical,” as these disorders often present earlier, and are more common in boys. The C.D.C. confirmed speculations from other researchers and clinicians that some teenage girls might be experiencing tics after the phenomenon was widely spread on social media, particularly on TikTok.
“Stress of the pandemic or exposure to severe tics, highlighted on social media platforms, might be associated with increases in visits with tics and tic-like behavior among adolescent females,” the C.D.C. wrote.
C.D.C. released a similar report. The C.D.C. also reported on Friday that the rise in mental health problems was due to sharp declines in emergency room visits during the pandemic. Overall visits decreased by 51 percent in 2020, and 22 percent in 2021 compared to 2019. The agency attributes these declines to families delaying treatment and a decrease in injuries from sports like swimming and running.
All youths under the age of 17 saw a decrease in emergency room visits for mental illnesses. There were increases in certain maladies, especially among teenage girls.
The general trend in adolescent psychological distress seems to have been exacerbated by the pandemic. But it started earlier. According to another report by the surgeon-general, the number of youths seeking emergency room care for anxiety, depression, and other related issues increased by 28 per cent between 2007 and 2018.
C.D.C. reported Friday that there was a decline in mental health-related emergency room visits for teenage boys in 2020 and 2021. According to the C.D.C., there was a decrease in mental health-related emergency rooms visits for teenage boys in 2020 and 2021 compared with 2019. The C.D.C. The C.D.C. also stated that the data was nuanced, and that visitation patterns for both boys and girls depended on a specific mental health condition as well as a time period.
“These sex differences might represent differences in need, recognition and health care-seeking behavior,” the C.D.C. wrote.
Weekly emergency room visits for teenage girls rose in 2020 for eating and tic disorders; and 2021 for those conditions and obsessive-compulsive disorders. The C.D.C. According to the C.D.C., there was also an increase of anxiety, trauma and stress-related disorders in January 2022.
Source: NY Times