青少年——尤其是女孩——在COVID的头两年里更容易患精神疾病

 

概要

 

根据发表在《美国医学会杂志》上的一项研究，大约170万美国青少年（男孩和女孩）在COVID-19大流行期间患常见精神疾病的情况有所增加，但女孩受到的影响特别大，青春期女孩的饮食障碍增加了一倍多。

该研究评估了2018年1月至2022年3月期间，6至18岁的青少年每月接受四种精神疾病诊断之一的百分比，即焦虑症、注意力缺陷多动障碍、抑郁症和饮食障碍。

研究结果表明，在大流行期间，除抑郁症外，所有其他疾病的诊断率都比大流行之前增长得更快。值得注意的是，在大流行开始后，饮食障碍的流行率在青春期女孩中增加了一倍多（从2020年3月的0.26%增加到2022年3月的0.56%）。在6至12岁的参与者中，除多动症外，所有精神疾病的诊断率都低于13至18岁的人，饮食障碍的情况与13至18岁的人相似。13至18岁男孩的饮食障碍患病率要低得多，但趋势与同龄女孩相当（2020年3月男孩的0.03%到2022年3月的0.06%）。从大流行之前到大流行期间，其他精神疾病诊断的流行率在十几岁的男孩中没有看到变化。

综上，在COVID-19大流行的过程中，心理健康诊断的趋势因年龄和性别而有很大不同。在大流行期间，女青少年代表了最脆弱的人群，心理健康诊断的流行率明显增加。

 

Youth—especially girls—had more psychiatric diagnoses in first 2 years of COVID

 

Among about 1.7 million US youths, both girls and boys experienced increases in some common mental illnesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, but girls were particularly affected, with more than a doubling of eating disorders among adolescent girls, according to a study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open.

 

Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Stanford University used a commercial healthcare claims database to evaluate the monthly percentage of youths aged 6 to 18 years who received one of four mental illness diagnoses—anxiety disorders, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder [ADHD], depression, and eating disorders—from January 2018 to March 2022.

 

On average for any given month, 25.3% of participants were 6- to 12-year-old girls , 23.6% were 13- to 18-year-old girls, 26.5% were boys aged 6 to 12, and 24.5% were boys aged 13 to 18.

 

The researchers noted that the pandemic disrupted daily life, increased isolation and social media use, lowered access to care, and exacerbated the financial situations of many families—all which could have influenced children's mental health.

 

K-Angle / iStock

 

Eating disorders up in all groups

When schools began to reopen after the first waves of the pandemic (October 2020 to March 2022), the prevalence of all four mental illnesses rose immediately among girls aged 13 to 18. Diagnoses of all disorders other than depression increased faster during than before the pandemic. Notably, the prevalence of eating disorders more than doubled among adolescent girls after the pandemic began (from 0.26% in March 2020 to 0.56% in March 2022).

 

“Among participants aged 6 to 12, the rates of all mental illness diagnoses were lower than those of adolescents except for ADHD, with eating disorders following a similar trajectory to that of 13- to 18-year-olds.”

 

The prevalence of eating disorders was much lower in 13- to 18-year-old boys, but trends were comparable to those of girls of the same age (0.03% of boys in March 2020 to 0.06% in March 2022). Changes in the prevalence of other mental illness diagnoses were not seen among teen boys from before to during the pandemic.

 

Among participants aged 6 to 12, the rates of all mental illness diagnoses were lower than those of adolescents except for ADHD, with eating disorders following a similar trajectory to that of 13- to 18-year-olds from before to during the pandemic (from 0.03% to 0.05% among girls and 0.01% to 0.03% among boys).

 

Urgent action needed to protect girls

"This cross-sectional study suggests that trends in MH [mental health] diagnoses differed greatly by age and sex over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic," the study authors wrote.

 

"Female youth, especially female adolescents, represented the most vulnerable population with regard to marked increases in the prevalence of MH diagnoses during the pandemic, the most pronounced being the prevalence of eating disorders."

 

The results, they said, underscore the urgency of taking action "to identify the underlying factors associated with the increase in MH diagnoses in female adolescents (eg, social isolation or accelerated reliance on social media), so that targeted mitigation strategies can be developed to reverse the alarming trend which has continued several years into the COVID-19 pandemic."

 

Source:

Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy

Published on May 24, 2023

 

 

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