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Comparison of new psychiatric diagnoses among Finnish children and adolescents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a nationwide register-based study

Background AU Coronavirus: Pleaseconfirmthatallheadinglevelsarerepresentedcorrectly Disease 2019 (COVID-19) restrictions decreased : the use of specialist psychiatric services for children and adolescents in spring 2020. However, little is known about the pattern once restrictions eased. We compared...

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Main Authors:	Gyllenberg, David, Bastola, Kalpana, Wan Mohd. Yunus, Wan Mohd. Azam, Mishina, Kaisa, Liukko, Emmi, Kaariala, Antti, Sourander, Andre
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Public Library of Science 2023
Subjects:	H Social Sciences (General) RA Public aspects of medicine
Online Access:	http://eprints.utm.my/106396/1/WanMohdAzam2023_ComparisonofNewPsychiatricDiagnosesamongFinnish.pdf http://eprints.utm.my/106396/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004072
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spelling	my.utm.1063962024-06-29T07:17:23Z http://eprints.utm.my/106396/ Comparison of new psychiatric diagnoses among Finnish children and adolescents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a nationwide register-based study Gyllenberg, David Bastola, Kalpana Wan Mohd. Yunus, Wan Mohd. Azam Mishina, Kaisa Liukko, Emmi Kaariala, Antti Sourander, Andre H Social Sciences (General) RA Public aspects of medicine Background AU Coronavirus: Pleaseconfirmthatallheadinglevelsarerepresentedcorrectly Disease 2019 (COVID-19) restrictions decreased : the use of specialist psychiatric services for children and adolescents in spring 2020. However, little is known about the pattern once restrictions eased. We compared new psychiatric diagnoses by specialist services during pandemic and pre-pandemic periods. Methods and findings This national register study focused on all Finnish residents aged 0 to 17 years from January 2017 to September 2021 (approximately 1 million a year). The outcomes were new monthly diagnoses for psychiatric or neurodevelopmental disorders in specialist services. These were analyzed by sex, age, home location, and diagnostic groups. The numbers of new diagnoses from March 2020 were compared to predictive models based on previous years. The predicted and observed levels in March to May 2020 showed no significant differences, but the overall difference was 18.5% (95% confidence interval 12.0 to 25.9) higher than predicted in June 2020 to September 2021, with 3,821 more patients diagnosed than anticipated. During this period, the largest increases were among females (33.4%, 23.4 to 45.2), adolescents (34.4%, 25.0 to 45.3), and those living in areas with the highest COVID-19 morbidity (29.9%, 21.2 to 39.8). The largest increases by diagnostic groups were found for eating disorders (27.4%, 8.0 to 55.3), depression and anxiety (21.0%, 12.1 to 51.9), and neurodevelopmental disorders (9.6%, 3.0 to 17.0), but psychotic and bipolar disorders and conduct and oppositional disorders showed no significant differences and self-harm (−28.6, −41.5 to −8.2) and substance use disorders (−15.5, −26.4 to −0.7) decreased in this period. The main limitation is that data from specialist services do not allow to draw conclusions about those not seeking help. Conclusions Following the first pandemic phase, new psychiatric diagnoses in children and adolescents increased by nearly a fifth in Finnish specialist services. Possible explanations to our findings include changes in help-seeking, referrals and psychiatric problems, and delayed service access. Public Library of Science 2023-02 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://eprints.utm.my/106396/1/WanMohdAzam2023_ComparisonofNewPsychiatricDiagnosesamongFinnish.pdf Gyllenberg, David and Bastola, Kalpana and Wan Mohd. Yunus, Wan Mohd. Azam and Mishina, Kaisa and Liukko, Emmi and Kaariala, Antti and Sourander, Andre (2023) Comparison of new psychiatric diagnoses among Finnish children and adolescents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a nationwide register-based study. PLoS Medicine, 20 (2). pp. 1-18. ISSN 1549-1277 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004072 DOI:10.1371/journal.pmed.1004072
institution	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
building	UTM Library
collection	Institutional Repository
continent	Asia
country	Malaysia
content_provider	Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
content_source	UTM Institutional Repository
url_provider	http://eprints.utm.my/
language	English
topic	H Social Sciences (General) RA Public aspects of medicine
spellingShingle	H Social Sciences (General) RA Public aspects of medicine Gyllenberg, David Bastola, Kalpana Wan Mohd. Yunus, Wan Mohd. Azam Mishina, Kaisa Liukko, Emmi Kaariala, Antti Sourander, Andre Comparison of new psychiatric diagnoses among Finnish children and adolescents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a nationwide register-based study
description	Background AU Coronavirus: Pleaseconfirmthatallheadinglevelsarerepresentedcorrectly Disease 2019 (COVID-19) restrictions decreased : the use of specialist psychiatric services for children and adolescents in spring 2020. However, little is known about the pattern once restrictions eased. We compared new psychiatric diagnoses by specialist services during pandemic and pre-pandemic periods. Methods and findings This national register study focused on all Finnish residents aged 0 to 17 years from January 2017 to September 2021 (approximately 1 million a year). The outcomes were new monthly diagnoses for psychiatric or neurodevelopmental disorders in specialist services. These were analyzed by sex, age, home location, and diagnostic groups. The numbers of new diagnoses from March 2020 were compared to predictive models based on previous years. The predicted and observed levels in March to May 2020 showed no significant differences, but the overall difference was 18.5% (95% confidence interval 12.0 to 25.9) higher than predicted in June 2020 to September 2021, with 3,821 more patients diagnosed than anticipated. During this period, the largest increases were among females (33.4%, 23.4 to 45.2), adolescents (34.4%, 25.0 to 45.3), and those living in areas with the highest COVID-19 morbidity (29.9%, 21.2 to 39.8). The largest increases by diagnostic groups were found for eating disorders (27.4%, 8.0 to 55.3), depression and anxiety (21.0%, 12.1 to 51.9), and neurodevelopmental disorders (9.6%, 3.0 to 17.0), but psychotic and bipolar disorders and conduct and oppositional disorders showed no significant differences and self-harm (−28.6, −41.5 to −8.2) and substance use disorders (−15.5, −26.4 to −0.7) decreased in this period. The main limitation is that data from specialist services do not allow to draw conclusions about those not seeking help. Conclusions Following the first pandemic phase, new psychiatric diagnoses in children and adolescents increased by nearly a fifth in Finnish specialist services. Possible explanations to our findings include changes in help-seeking, referrals and psychiatric problems, and delayed service access.
format	Article
author	Gyllenberg, David Bastola, Kalpana Wan Mohd. Yunus, Wan Mohd. Azam Mishina, Kaisa Liukko, Emmi Kaariala, Antti Sourander, Andre
author_facet	Gyllenberg, David Bastola, Kalpana Wan Mohd. Yunus, Wan Mohd. Azam Mishina, Kaisa Liukko, Emmi Kaariala, Antti Sourander, Andre
author_sort	Gyllenberg, David
title	Comparison of new psychiatric diagnoses among Finnish children and adolescents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a nationwide register-based study
title_short	Comparison of new psychiatric diagnoses among Finnish children and adolescents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a nationwide register-based study
title_full	Comparison of new psychiatric diagnoses among Finnish children and adolescents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a nationwide register-based study
title_fullStr	Comparison of new psychiatric diagnoses among Finnish children and adolescents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a nationwide register-based study
title_full_unstemmed	Comparison of new psychiatric diagnoses among Finnish children and adolescents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a nationwide register-based study
title_sort	comparison of new psychiatric diagnoses among finnish children and adolescents before and during the covid-19 pandemic: a nationwide register-based study
publisher	Public Library of Science
publishDate	2023
url	http://eprints.utm.my/106396/1/WanMohdAzam2023_ComparisonofNewPsychiatricDiagnosesamongFinnish.pdf http://eprints.utm.my/106396/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004072
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score	13.211869

Comparison of new psychiatric diagnoses among Finnish children and adolescents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a nationwide register-based study

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