CDC: More teen girls in ER for mental health

The roughly two years since the beginning of the pandemic have seen a significant increase in teenage girls visiting emergency rooms due to mental health conditions, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released last week.

The study found that the proportion of emergency room visits made by girls aged 12 to 17 doubled for eating disorders and approximately tripled for tic disorders during the pandemic when compared with 2019.

It also reported that adolescent girls’ emergency room visits rose for depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder in 2021 and for anxiety, trauma and stressor-related disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorder in January 2022 in comparison with 2019.

The study claimed that risk factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as “lack of structure in daily routine, emotional distress and changes in food availability,” could have been a trigger for eating disorders in particular.

The increase in visits for tic disorders was “atypical,” according to the study, as such disorders usually have an onset at a younger age and are more commonly present in boys than in girls.