ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND. Covid-19 pandemic has negatively impacted child and adolescent mental health. The primary outcome of this study was the evaluation of Covid-19 impact on minors’ hospitalizations in an acute psychiatric ward. METHOD. With an observational and retrospective design, we collected selected variables among adolescents hospitalized in an acute psychiatric ward from 01/07/2017 to 30/06/2022. Data were statistically processed. RESULTS. Our sample was composed of 118 minors with an average age of 15.7 ± 1.2 SD, mostly represented by females (61%) and Italians (60.2%), who had 204 hospitalizations. The number of admissions by years drastically decreased in 2020 concomitantly with Covid19 lockdown and increased in the first half of 2022. Admission rates were higher in winter and spring, except in 2020 when admissions decreased (p = 0.000). In our sample, females more frequently had suicidal behaviour and acute anxiety (p = 0.000) at admissions and more often were discharged with acute stress reactions, eating disorders and mood disorder diagnoses. Differently, males were more frequently hospitalized for aggressive behaviour (p = 0.000) and were more often discharged with ADHD diagnosis (p = 0.000). At multiple linear regression, the duration of hospitalization (dependent variable) was negatively associated with “pandemic period” (p = 0.017) and “absent aggressive behaviour” (p = 0.003), and positively with “autism” diagnosis (p = 0.000). CONCLUSIONS. We highlighted the more stressful impact of Covid-19 pandemic on female adolescents, who required more psychiatric hospitalizations, in particular for suicidal behaviour, anxiety and mood disorders.