During the second year of the coronavirus pandemic, an increasing number of American families found themselves desperate to seek help for their depressed or suicidal children and resorted to bringing them to emergency rooms. A comprehensive analysis of private insurance claims has revealed that this surge in acute mental health crises primarily affected adolescent girls aged 13 to 17.
According to a recent study published in JAMA Psychiatry, there was a 22% increase in emergency room visits by teenage girls with mental health emergencies compared to the prepandemic baseline. These visits included cases of suicidal behavior and eating disorders. In contrast, there was a 9% drop in emergency room visits by teenage boys for mental health problems during the same period.
Overall, the study found a 7% increase in the proportion of young people visiting emergency rooms for mental health-related issues compared to the prepandemic baseline. It’s important to note that the study only focused on privately insured Americans and did not capture the situation in Medicaid or uninsured households.
While the study did not provide a specific explanation for the gender gap in hospitalizations for mental health emergencies, the authors suggested that factors like school disruption, social isolation, and conflicts at home may have disproportionately affected girls. Lindsay Overhage, one of the study’s authors, expressed particular concern about the prevalence of suicidal thoughts, behavior, and self-harm among this group of girls.
This gender disparity in hospitalizations for mental health emergencies is not a new phenomenon and predates the pandemic. Additional research conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2022 revealed that teenagers were significantly affected by their parents’ job loss and food insecurity. Emotional abuse by parents and difficulty completing schoolwork were also prevalent among adolescents.
Data from Britain further supports these findings, emphasizing that older girls from poorer households experienced the most pronounced difficulties. Attitudes towards mental health care could also contribute to the gender gap, with teenage girls being more likely to seek support from their peers and engage in discussions about mental health on platforms like TikTok.
However, relying on emergency room visits to address acute mental health issues is far from ideal, especially during a pandemic. The study found that patients often experienced prolonged waits before receiving appropriate inpatient psychiatric care. In fact, the second year of the pandemic saw a staggering 76% increase in the number of young people spending two or more nights in an emergency room before being admitted.
This situation of prolonged waiting, known as “boarding,” significantly increases stress levels for young people in crisis and leads parents to liken the environment to incarceration. Haiden Huskamp, an economist and one of the authors of the study, described this increase in boarding as dramatic and worrisome. She emphasized the need for policy changes, including adjustments to reimbursement rates for mental health care, to ensure that more care is available for adolescents.
Addressing the mental health crisis among young people is an urgent matter, and while the attention drawn by the surgeon general is important, it is imperative for policy changes to happen quickly. Moving forward, it is crucial to provide timely and appropriate mental health care to support the well-being of adolescents in need.
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