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Psychiatric Emergencies in Los Angeles County During, and After, Initial COVID-19 Societal Restrictions: An Interrupted Time-Series Analysis.
Bruckner, Tim A; Huo, Shutong; Huynh, Michael; Du, Senxi; Young, Andrew; Ro, Annie.
  • Bruckner TA; Program in Public Health, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, USA. tim.bruckner@uci.edu.
  • Huo S; Program in Public Health, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, USA.
  • Huynh M; Program in Public Health, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, USA.
  • Du S; David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA.
  • Young A; Harbor UCLA Medical Center, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA.
  • Ro A; Program in Public Health, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, USA.
Community Ment Health J ; 59(4): 622-630, 2023 05.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2253136
ABSTRACT
Emergency department (ED) visits for psychiatric care in the US reportedly declined during the COVID-19 pandemic. This work, however, does not control for strong temporal patterning in visits before the pandemic and does not examine a potential "rebound" in demand for psychiatric care following the relaxation of initial societal restrictions. Here, we examine COVID-19-related perturbations in psychiatric care during and after the 1st stage of societal restrictions in the largest safety-net hospital in Los Angeles. We retrieved psychiatric ED visit data (98,888 total over 156 weeks, Jan 2018 to Dec 2020) from Los Angeles County + USC Medical Center. We applied interrupted time series methods to identify and control for autocorrelation in psychiatric ED visits before examining their relation with the 1st stage of societal restrictions (i.e., March 13 to May 8, 2020), as well as the subsequent "rebound" period of relaxed restrictions (i.e., after May 8, 2020). Psychiatric ED visits fell by 78.13 per week (i.e., 12%) during the 1st stage of societal restrictions (SD = 23.99, p < 0.01). Reductions in ED visits for alcohol use, substance use, and (to a lesser extent) anxiety disorders accounted for the overall decline. After the 1st stage of societal restrictions, however, we observe no "rebound" above expected values in psychiatric ED visits overall (coef = - 16.89, SD = 20.58, p = 0.41) or by diagnostic subtype. This pattern of results does not support speculation that, at the population level, foregoing ED care during initial societal restrictions subsequently induced a psychiatric "pandemic" of urgent visits.
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Full text: Available Collection: International databases Database: MEDLINE Main subject: COVID-19 Type of study: Experimental Studies / Observational study Limits: Humans Country/Region as subject: North America Language: English Journal: Community Ment Health J Year: 2023 Document Type: Article Affiliation country: S10597-022-01043-4

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Full text: Available Collection: International databases Database: MEDLINE Main subject: COVID-19 Type of study: Experimental Studies / Observational study Limits: Humans Country/Region as subject: North America Language: English Journal: Community Ment Health J Year: 2023 Document Type: Article Affiliation country: S10597-022-01043-4