Psychiatric inpatient services in Ontario, 2019-2021: a cross-sectional comparison of admissions, diagnoses and acuity during the COVID-19 prerestriction, restriction and postrestriction periods.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with increased mental health problems in the general population, yet psychiatric hospital admissions decreased. Early evidence suggested that psychiatric admissions normalized within weeks; we sought to examine the longer-lasting impacts on the psychiatric inpatient population beyond this initial period.

Methods

We compared Ontario Mental Health Reporting System admission data for patients admitted to 8 psychiatric hospitals in Ontario, Canada, between 3 time periods - before restrictions were imposed (June 22, 2019, to Mar. 16, 2020), during restrictions (Mar. 17 to June 21, 2020) and after restrictions were lifted (June 22, 2020, to Mar. 16, 2021) for changes in involuntary status, diagnoses and clinical presentation using de

SUBMITTER: Ham E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10609896 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep-Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature