Mental health presentations to Christchurch Hospital Emergency Department during COVID-19 lockdown
Abstract
Objective
To describe mental health presentations to a tertiary ED in New Zealand during a national COVID-19 lockdown.
Methods
A retrospective, comparative cohort study in Christchurch Hospital, New Zealand.
Results
There was a 3510 (37%)-patient decrease in all presentations to Christchurch Hospital ED during the 5-week COVID-19 lockdown period from 26 March 2020 to 28 April 2020, compared to a 111 (1.2%)-patient decrease in the same time period in the previous year (P < 0.00001). There is usually a seasonal reduction in mental health attendances at this time of year compared to the weeks before. In 2019, there was a 49 (9.8%)-patient reduction in mental health presentations, whereas in 2020 there was a 193 (34%)-patient reduction (P < 0.001). In 2020, the proportion of mental health attendances compared to all ED attendances during the 5-week lockdown period was similar to the 5-week pre-lockdown period (564/9460 vs 371/5950, P = 0.48). The proportion of mental health patients presenting due to overdose increased by 6.5% (158/564 vs 128/371, P = 0.035); those due to self-harm increased by 3.5% (35/564 vs 36/371, P = 0.049). The proportion of mental health presentations due to anxiety, depression and other non-self-harm/overdose complaints decreased by 10% (371/564 vs 207/371, P = 0.002). The proportion of overdoses of paracetamol and ibuprofen increased by 13.4% during lockdown (22/158 vs 35/128, P = 0.005).
Conclusions
During the COVID-19 lockdown, both overall ED presentations as well as mental health-related presentations decreased. There was a relative increase in overdoses and self-harm, particularly involving paracetamol and ibuprofen.
Open Research
The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.
