ABSTRACT
Objectives: The COVID-19 global pandemic has caused children and adolescents to face substantial challenges in their daily lives, but as the pandemic restrictions are lifted, children and adolescents have varying opinions about returning to a prepandemic lifestyle. This study investigates the impact of the transition out of a virtual lifestyle to an in-person lifestyle on the mental health of children and adolescents with psychiatric conditions. Method(s): A retrospective review of medical records was conducted on individuals who were treated in an inpatient or outpatient setting at the UCLA Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry following the pandemic. Subjects completed a questionnaire that collected both subjective and objective data on mental health, social and family functioning, academics, daily time spent, and more. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), and UCLA Loneliness Scale scores were used to measure depression, anxiety, and loneliness, respectively. Result(s): A total of 93 subjects under the age of 21 years were enrolled in the study (Mage= 14.2;49 females, 24 males;20 transgender/nonbinary). Using the subject's subjective response regarding the transition from a virtual to in-person lifestyle, subjects were categorized by having positive, negative, and ambivalent feedback. Each feedback group was then compared using a single-factor ANOVA, which found that mental health scores for all 3 groups in all 3 measures had significant differences. There was a significant decline in depression scores (PHQ-9) with a decline in positivity toward the transition (p <.05). Subjects in the feedback groups experienced the same trend in symptoms of anxiety (GAD-7) (p <.05) and Loneliness Scale scores (p <.05). Conclusion(s): Online learning and returning to an in-person lifestyle has made significant impacts on the overall mental health of pediatric psychiatric patients. These results show that there are many different experiences within this transition, and that subjective data is a good indicator of mental health scores. Further research can be done to investigate the specific trends or implications of various diagnoses on the transition from a virtual to in-person lifestyle. ADOL, AD, DDD Copyright © 2022