The mental health toll of COVID-19: significant increase in admissions to ICU for voluntary self-inflicted injuries after the beginning of the pandemic

COVID-19 outbreak deeply impacted on mental health, with high rate of psychological distress in healthcare professionals, patients and general population. Current literature on trauma showed no increase in ICU admissions for deliberate self-inflicted injuries in the first weeks after the beginning o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of mental health systems 2023-07, Vol.17 (1), p.22-22, Article 22
Main Authors: Mongodi, Silvia, Salve, Giulia, Ravasi, Marta, Rizzi, Damiano, Mangiagalli, Matteo, Musella, Valeria, Klersy, Catherine, Ansaloni, Luca, Mojoli, Francesco
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anxiety
Borderline personality disorder
Brief Report
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Drug abuse
Epidemics
Hospital care
Hospitals
Injuries
Intensive care units
Italy
Length of stay
Mental health
Mortality
Pandemics
Patient admissions
Poisoning
Psychological aspects
Psychosis
Risk factors
Self-destructive behavior
Self-harm
Self-inflicted injuries
Shelter in place
Statistics
Suicidal behaviours
Suicide
Suicide attempts
Suicides & suicide attempts
Surveys
Trauma
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Summary:COVID-19 outbreak deeply impacted on mental health, with high rate of psychological distress in healthcare professionals, patients and general population. Current literature on trauma showed no increase in ICU admissions for deliberate self-inflicted injuries in the first weeks after the beginning of COVID-19. We tested the hypothesis that self-inflicted injuries/harms of any method requiring ICU admission increased in the year following COVID-19 outbreak. Retrospective cohort single-center study comparing admissions to ICU the year before and the year after the pandemic start. All patients admitted to polyvalent ICUs-Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico S. Matteo, Pavia, Italy from February 21st, 2019 to February 21st, 2020 (pre-COVID) and from February 22nd, 2020 to February 22nd, 2021 (post-COVID) were enrolled. We enrolled 1038 pre-COVID and 854 post-COVID patients. In post-COVID, the incidence of self-inflicted injuries was 32/854 (3.8% [2.5-5.1]), higher than in pre-COVID (23/1038, 2.2%-p = 0.0014-relative increase 72.7%). The increase was more relevant when excluding COVID-19 patients (suicide attempts 32/697 (4.6% [3.0-6.2])-relative increase 109.1%; p 
ISSN:1752-4458
1752-4458
DOI:10.1186/s13033-023-00590-x