• Marta Gómez-Ramiro, Giovanna Fico, Gerard Anmella, Mireia Vázquez, Maria Sagué-Vilavella, Diego Hidalgo-Mazzei, Isabella Pacchiarotti, Marina Garriga, Andrea Murru, Eduard Parellada, and Eduard Vieta.
• Barcelona Clínic Schizophrenia Unit, Hospital Clínic of Barcelona, Department of Medicine, Neuroscience Institute, Universitat de Barcelona, CIBERSAM, IDIBAPS, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain; Psychiatric Emergency Service, Institute of Neuroscience, Hospital Clínic, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
• J Affect Disord. 2021 Mar 1; 282: 26-32.

BackgroundDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, a structural reorganization was imposed on public health systems. Psychiatry services were also affected with the imposed reduction of non-urgent consultations. We aim to explore the effect of these changes on a Psychiatry Emergency Service during COVID-19 lockdown in Spain.MethodsA retrospective analysis was performed on all patients admitted to our Psychiatric Emergency Service 90 days before and after March 14th, 2020, the first day of lockdown in Spain. Extracted data were compared between the two periods. Poisson regression analysis was performed to analyze changes in admission rates.Results1,958 psychiatric emergency admissions were analyzed. Although the number of admissions decreased by 37.9%, we observed a significant increase in the percentage of acute psychiatric hospitalization during the lockdown. Anxiety spectrum disorders accumulated the greatest significant decrease in admission rates during the lockdown. On the other hand, a significant increase in admissions rates was found in patients with dementia, autism spectrum disorders, and substance use disorders during the lockdown.LimitationsThis study was conducted in a single psychiatric emergency service, preventing a generalization of our results. The comparison time period might have biased our results due to the influence of external factors.ConclusionMental health consequences of COVID-19 are becoming apparent. A reduction of admission rates for anxiety disorders might be related telepsychiatry implementation during the lockdown. Other conditions particularly vulnerable to the routine changes and lack of social support have suffered the most, and efforts should be placed to treat these situations.Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier B.V.

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