More U.S. Teens, Kids Seeking Mental Health Care in ERs

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on HealthDay.

U.S. emergency departments are seeing a surge in the number of kids and teens seeking help for mental health problems, new research warns.

Between 2011 and 2015 alone, there was a 28 percent jump in psychiatric visits among Americans between the ages of 6 and 24.

“The trends were not a surprise,” said study author Luther Kalb, given that “using the emergency department for mental health reasons has been increasing for a while” among all age groups.

But why is it happening among young people?

“The rising suicide and opioid epidemics are surely a factor,” given that “the ER plays a critical role in treating overdoses,” he said.

“Emergency Department providers could also be more likely to detect and/or ask about pediatric mental health issues, which leads to increased detection,” added Kalb, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. “Parents may be more likely to report the child’s symptoms as well.

“There is also an increase in outpatient mental health service use overall among youth in the U.S.,” he noted. “This may lead to a trickle-down effect, where the provider sends the child to the [emergency department] during times of crisis.”

The omnipresence of social media may also play a notable role in upping youth depression risk, Kalb acknowledged, though he stressed that “it is unknown if social media plays a role increasing psychiatric ED use.”

The analysis revealed that while there had been about 31 psychiatric-related visits to the ER for every 1,000 Americans between the ages of 6 and 24 back in 2011, that figure had risen to more than 40 by 2015.

But that number shot up even higher among some groups.

For example, a roughly 54 percent increase was seen among adolescents as a whole, and black kids and young adults in particular. Among Hispanic youth, that figure rose to more than 90 percent.

What’s more, visits by adolescents of all backgrounds that were specifically related to suicide risk more than doubled during the study time frame.

The findings were published online in the journal Pediatrics.

Dr. Susan Duffy is a professor of emergency medicine and pediatrics at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and is an attending physician at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, R.I. She coauthored an editorial accompanying the study.

“Data suggests that over 20 percent of adolescents aged 13 to 18 have experienced a debilitating mental health disorder,” said Duffy. “For the past 10 years, there has been an increasing trend in children’s, youth and young adult mental health visits, and increasing recognition that the resources do not meet the need for care.”

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/kids-health-information-23/adolescents-and-teen-health-news-719/more-u-s-teens-kids-seeking-mental-health-care-in-ers-743964.html