Publication #123 - EN - New study shows increases in depression and anxiety symptoms in youth during the pandemic

MSc, SickKids’ Chair in Child and Youth Medical Psychiatry, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto At the beginning of the pandemic, rapid evidence about the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of children and adolescents was needed to inform policy decisions. [...] By combining data that reported on depression and anxiety symptoms in the same children and adolescents both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, our group has demonstrated a notable increase in depression symptoms during the pandemic when compared to before the pandemic. [...] Regarding anxiety, we only found a slight increase in symptoms, which may suggest that changes in anxiety were more variable—they may have initially rose at the outset of the pandemic, and then ebbed and flowed during the pandemic. [...] And yet despite this clinical service gap, and the growing mental health problem during the pandemic, the federal mental health transfer was cancelled, and the new funding for mental health includes indicators that are not child specific. [...] To optimize the health and well-being of children and adolescents, we need to act swiftly, and bolster resources, supports, and accessibility to mental health services.