Feb. 18 (UPI) —<\/span> Emergency room visits related to eating disorders among adolescents doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to pre-pandemic levels, data released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed.<\/p>\n Similarly, trips to the ER due to injuries caused by “self-harm” among people ages 12 to 17 years rose by 50% or more over 2019 figures in each of the three years impacted by the pandemic, 2020, 2021 and 2022, the data showed.\n<\/p>\n<\/article>\n Visits related to symptoms of mental health disorders in this age group increased by up to 60% over the same period, while those related to drug poisonings, or overdoses, spiked by up to 70%, the agency said.<\/p>\n These increases occurred despite an overall decline in ER visits among children and teens age 17 years and younger nationally since the start of the pandemic, it said.\n<\/p>\n Pediatric ER visits dropped by 51% in 2020, 22% in 2021 and 23% in January of this year, compared with 2019 levels, according to the CDC.<\/p>\n “Although there was some variation by pandemic year, increases in visits with certain injuries … are consistent with reports of increased [drug] overdose and violence outcomes during the pandemic,” the CDC researchers wrote.\n<\/p>\n “Factors affecting caregivers, including unavailable or unpredictable childcare, illness, financial hardship, and mental health concerns, might increase children and adolescents’ vulnerabilities,” they said.\n<\/p>\n Among children age 4 years and younger, ER visits related to marijuana consumption — accidental or otherwise — more than tripled between March 2020 and January of this year, compared with 2019 levels, according to the CDC.<\/p>\n Over the same period, ER visits due to firearm injuries among children in this age group increased four-fold, the agency said.<\/p>\n Children ages 5 to 11 years also saw ER visits related to marijuana consumption triple during the pandemic, while firearm injury visits doubled, it said.\n<\/p>\n ER visits related to self-harm injuries in this age group increased by up to 60% between 2020 and early 2022, compared with pre-pandemic levels, the data showed.<\/p>\n “Children and adolescents’ loss of parents or other caregivers, increases in other adversities and disruptions in daily routine because of the COVID-19 pandemic might also increase [their] behavioral health concerns and unhealthy coping behaviors,” the CDC researchers wrote.<\/p>\n “Strengthening supports to reduce family stress, enhancing access to services and resources, safe storage of firearms … and limiting accessibility to drugs … can help address these factors,” they said.\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Emergency room visits related to eating disorders among adolescents doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared with pre-pandemic levels, data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. File Photo by John Angelillo\/UPI | License Photo Feb. 18 (UPI) — Emergency room visits related to eating disorders among adolescents doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":996416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[619,620,3398,4639,1040,5246,5247,3550],"class_list":["post-996415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-cdc","tag-childrens","tag-disorders","tag-eating","tag-pandemic","tag-selfharm","tag-spike","tag-visits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=996415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996415\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=996415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=996415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=996415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n ![\"CDC:](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/CDC-Childrens-ER-visits-for-eating-disorders-self-harm-spike-during-pandemic.jpg\" "\\"CDC:")
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\n<\/div>\nEmergency room visits related to eating disorders among adolescents doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared with pre-pandemic levels, data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. File Photo by John Angelillo\/UPI | License Photo<\/div>\n\n