More teenage girls with eating disorders are injured during the pandemic

During the pandemic, emergency rooms around the country have reported an increase in visits from teenage girls dealing with eating problems and other disorders, including anxiety. anxiety, depression and stress, according to New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The report provides new details on the types of mental health problems affecting a generation of teenagers.

Mental health experts theorize that the pandemic has left some young people feeling isolated, lonely and out of control. Emily Pluhar, a pediatric psychologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, says some cope by finding ways to control their behavior.

“You choose a very vulnerable group and cause a global pandemic,” she said. “Uncontrolled eating disorders.”

In the CDC study, the agency said the rate of eating disorder episodes doubled among adolescent girls, due to pandemic-related risk factors, such as “lack of structure in the daily routine, emotional distress, and changing food sources.”

The agency said the increase in tic disorders was “atypical”, as the disorders often present earlier and are more common in boys. But the CDC, reinforce speculation from other researchers and clinicianssays that some teenage girls may be developing tic after seeing the phenomenon go viral on social media, especially on TikTok.

“Pandemic stress or severe tic exposure, highlighted on social media platforms, may be associated with increased visits to tics and tic-like behavior in the United States,” the CDC writes. adolescent women.

In a related report, CDC also said on Friday that the increase in visits for mental health problems occurred as emergency rooms reported a sharp drop in overall medical visits during the pandemic. Compared to 2019, overall visits are down 51 percent in 2020 and 22 percent in 2021, a drop the agency attributes in part to families delaying care and reducing physical trauma caused by health problems. activities such as swimming and running.

Overall emergency room visits for mental health conditions decreased in all young adults, up to age 17. Increases occurred for specific conditions and especially in girls. juvenile.

More broadly, the rise in adolescent mental health distress appears to have accelerated during the pandemic, but it started earlier. The number of emergency room visits among young adults related to depression, anxiety, and similar problems increased 28% between 2007 and 2018. according to another report by the general surgeon.

In its report Friday, the CDC said mental health-related emergency room visits for teenage boys fell in both 2020 and 2021 compared with 2019. But the CDC also reported that data is nuanced and that the pattern of visits for boys, as well as girls, depends on the specific mental health status and time period.

These sex differences may represent differences in health care needs, recognition, and seeking behavior, the CDC writes.

For adolescent girls, weekly emergency room visits increase due to eating disorders and tics in 2020; and for those conditions and obsessive-compulsive disorder in 2021. In January 2022, the CDC said there was also an increase in anxiety, trauma, and stress-related problems.