Page 20 - DMN1Q22

Keep the Children
Keep the Children
in School
in School
By: Susan Adelman , MD
By: Susan Adelman , MD
Keeping children in the classrooms is a medical issue. This is not only a matter of actually teaching children in the classroom, rather than going through the motions on Zoom, it is a matter of survival. The statistics should serve as a warning. For example, let us look at four parameters: suicides, depression, drug overdoses and obesity.
in 2019 to 38.4 prior to the beginning of the second lockdown initiation in September 2020 and October and 40.5 in early November 2020 and December 2020, for respective increases of 116% and 299%.” (Children’s suicide attempts have increased during COVID-19 pandemic (healio.com))
Depression:
The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy published an article on August 9 summarizing some data on childhood depression during the Covid epidemic. One finding was: “Around the world, children’s depression and anxiety rates may have doubled since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the results of a meta-literature review published in JAMA Pediatrics today. The researchers looked at 29 general-population studies, one of which
Suicides:
The June 11 U.S. News reported that ‘Emergency room visits for suspected suicide attempts rose in adolescents – particularly among girls – during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday.
“The increase started in May 2020, and from February to March 2021 emergency rooms visits for suspected
suicide attempts were over 50% higher among girls aged 12–17 than during the same period in 2019, according to the study. For boys of the same age, the increase was just under 4%.”
“Compared with the rate during the corresponding period in 2019, the rate of [emergency department] visits for suspected suicide attempts was 2.4 times
as high during spring 2020, 1.7 times as high during summer 2020, and 2.1 times as high during winter 2021,” according to the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. (CDC Study Documents Rise in Adolescent Suicide Attempts During Pandemic | Health News | US News)
And this effect was not confined to the U.S. A report in Helio.com psychiatry on Oct. 13 gives statistics from a study in France: “researchers noted a significant increase in the number of children’s suicide attempts between the lowest and highest levels of 12.2 and 22.5
was not peer reviewed, and found pooled depression and anxiety rates at 25.2% and 20.5%, respectively.” (Depression and anxiety doubled in children, pandemic study says | CIDRAP (umn.edu)
Drug overdoses:
On July 1, 2020, the Washington Post reported: “‘Cries for help’: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic. Suspected overdoses nationally jumped 18 percent in March, 29 percent in April and 42 percent in May, data from ambulance teams, hospitals and police shows.” (Coronavirus has caused a huge spike in drug overdoses nationwide - The Washington Post)
On February 3, 2021, JAMA reported a study that showed “Overdoses exhibited great increases in weekly counts in 2020 compared with 2019. That all drug
and opioid OD ED visits did not decrease in a similar
20 Detroit Medical News
First Quarter 2022