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Mental Disorders Among Young Finns Spike After Onslaught of COVID-19 Pandemic

Depression - Sputnik International, 1920, 02.03.2023
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Researchers have uncovered a correlation between a spike in psychiatric disorders and areas with the highest number of COVID-19 cases and the strictest restrictions, such as Greater Helsinki, these revelations have prompted experts to call for further studies to clarify the situation.
The number of new psychiatric diagnoses among young Finns has surged by almost a fifth after the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, a recent study by the University of Turku's Child Psychiatry Research Center and the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Finland has found.
The diagnoses soared especially among girls, teenagers, and in the Helsinki metropolitan area, where restrictions were more severe and COVID-19 infection rates were higher than in other parts of the sparsely-populated country.
Depression, anxiety diagnoses and eating disorders increased the most during the research period.
In the nationwide registry study, the use of specialized healthcare services among children and adolescents under the age of 18 from January 2017 to September 2021 was reviewed and ranked by gender, age, and home location. Researchers compared the number of new diagnoses received by children and adolescents to previous years' forecast models, and found that it was 18.5% higher than predicted.
On the whole, 3,821 more patients than expected were diagnosed with psychiatric disorders from June 2020 to September 2021. During this period, psychiatric diagnoses were made more frequently among young women and teenagers, with a markedly less pronounced increase among children. The researchers found a correlation between the spike in psychiatric diagnoses and areas with the highest COVID-19 incidence and the strictest restrictions, such as Greater Helsinki and other large cities and suggested further studies to determine their role.
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The study also dealt with the incidence of various diagnoses. The spike mostly involved eating disorders, depression, anxiety and neurocognitive disorders. By contrast, no significant differences in psychotic or bipolar disorders was noted. Furthermore, diagnoses related to self-harm and substance abuse were found to be even less than predicted.
At the height of the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that up to 40 percent of the US population was struggling with mental health issues, citing "a lot of anxiety and fear, PTSD, [and] depression" as well as "an increase in substance use and addiction problems" in addition to those with preexisting issues.
That being said, the World Health Organization noted that the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a worldwide 25-percent increase in the prevalence of anxiety and depression.
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