Depressive and anxiety disorders in Polish children across the COVID-19 pandemic: a nationwide registry-based time-trend analysis
Marcin Czech, Malwina Hołownia-Voloskova, Katarzyna Bliźniewska-Kowalska, Krzysztof Marcin Zakrzewski, Otton Roubinek, Anna Mosiołek, Andrzej Silczuk
TL;DR
This study shows how the COVID-19 pandemic increased mental health issues in Polish children, leading to higher medication use and longer sick leaves.
Contribution
The study provides new insights into the long-term mental health effects of the pandemic on Polish youth through a nationwide time-trend analysis.
Findings
Antidepressant and antipsychotic prescriptions remained high post-pandemic, unlike short-acting anxiolytics.
Sick-leave days and psychiatric treatment rates increased significantly during and after the pandemic.
Escitalopram and quetiapine prescriptions showed strong upward trends during the pandemic.
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly disrupted the mental health landscape for children and adolescents in Poland. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of psychotropic medication use, sick-leave days, and psychiatric treatment rates among Polish youth from 2018 to 2024, encompassing pre-pandemic, pandemic, and post-pandemic periods. In the study we used national-level datasets. Data on Rx (recipe) purchases were obtained from IQVIA Pharmascope database for medication consumption by patients in community pharmacies. We have further examined the combined annual number of sick-leave days for 2020–2024. This data was obtained directly from the Social Insurance Institution of Poland. Lastly, we considered the dataset consisting of annual counts of children, who received at least one intervention in psychiatric care during the examined period. We observed a sharp increase in…
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Taxonomy
TopicsCOVID-19 and Mental Health · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Bipolar Disorder and Treatment