Madeleine Gordon, Navitha Jayakumar, Clare Atzema, Daphne J Korczak, Sidney Kennedy, Ayal Schaffer, Benjamin Goldstein, Beverley A Orser, Doreen Yee, Lisa Fiksenbaum, Liz Hanbyul Lee Choi, Andrea Phillips, Amanda McFarlan, Margaret Kreller, Corey Freedman, Brandy Tanenbaum, Dorothy McDowall, Amanda Ceniti, Mark Sinyor
The COVID-19 pandemic raised concerns regarding increased suicide-related behaviours. We compared characteristics and counts of Emergency Department (ED) presentations for self-harm, an important suicide-related outcome, during versus prior to the pandemic's first year. We included patients presenting with self-harm to the ED of two trauma centres in Toronto, Canada. Time series models compared intra-pandemic (March 2020-February 2021) presentation counts to predictions from pre-pandemic data. The self-harm proportion of ED presentations was compared between the intra-pandemic period and preceding three years...
April 6, 2024: Psychiatry Research