Behavioral Health Diagnoses and Health Care Use Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: Emerging evidence has suggested a population-wide worsening of psychiatric symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among individuals with preexisting mental health conditions. The authors investigated whether reported behavioral health problems are being identified and treated. METHODS: This observational cohort study retrospectively compared Medicaid data of patients from the first year of the pandemic (2020) in the United States (N=1,589,111 patients) with the corresponding data from the year before (2019; N=1,715,872 patients). Outcome measures included several behavioral health diagnoses and health care utilization. RESULTS: During the pandemic period examined, the numbers of patients served, adults receiving a new diagnosis of anxiety, and children receiving a new diagnosis of depression all increased. Across all age groups, nonbehavioral health emergency department visits significantly decreased. CONCLUSIONS: These findings support reports of increases in psychiatric morbidity but do not provide evidence for increased demand for health care services.

Does COVID-19 count?: Defining Criterion A trauma for diagnosing PTSD during a global crisis.

INTRODUCTION: The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a globally significant crisis with a rapid spread worldwide, high rates of illness and mortality, a high degree of uncertainty, and a disruption of daily life across the sociodemographic spectrum. The clinically relevant psychological consequences of this catastrophe will be long-lasting and far-reaching. There is an emerging body of empirical literature related to the mental health aspects of this pandemic and this body will likely expand exponentially. The COVID-19 pandemic is an example of a historic catastrophe from which we can learn much and from which the field will need to archive, interpret, and synthesize a multitude of clinical and research observations. METHODS: In this commentary, we discuss situations and contexts in which a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may or may not apply within the context of diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5) criteria. RESULTS: Our consensus is that a COVID-related event cannot be considered traumatic unless key aspects of DSM-5's PTSD Criterion A have been established for a specific type of COVID-19 event (e.g., acute, life-threatening, and catastrophic). CONCLUSION: The application of a more liberal interpretation of Criterion A will dilute the PTSD diagnosis, increase heterogeneity, confound case-control research, and create an overall sample pool with varying degrees of risk and vulnerability factors.