Study Shows Increase in Youth ER Visits with Suicidal Ideation
Study Shows Increase in Youth ER Visits with Suicidal Ideation
Chicago
January 17, 2023
By Elizabeth Neidig
Suicidal ideation-related emergency department visits for youth in Illinois increased substantially from 2016 through 2021, with key peaks starting before the COVID-19 pandemic, medical researchers in Chicago have found.
Published in the December 2022 issue of Pediatrics, the study “Trends in Suicidal Ideation-Related Emergency Department Visits for Youth in Illinois: 2016-2021” evaluated Illinois hospital administrative data for emergency department visits coded for suicidal ideation from January 2016 through June 2021 for patients aged 5 through 19.
Visits coded as suicidal ideation increased 59% from an initial period of 2016-2017 to 2019-2022, with a 57% increase in hospitalizations from the fall of 2019 through the fall of 2020. Peaks were noted in September 2019 and September 2020.
Of the 81,051 emergency department visits analyzed during the relevant period, 24.6% resulted in hospitalization. Researchers found that youth were actually 84% less likely to be hospitalized if their principal diagnosis was coded as “suicidal ideation” rather than severe mental illness, substance abuse, anxiety, depression, or if the emergency department visit was to a children’s or behavioral health hospital.
Researchers noted that Illinois trends mirror the growing crisis in youth mental health nationwide. The study concluded that the increase in pediatric emergency department visits for suicidal ideation in Illinois likely reflected both the difficulty in accessing high-quality pediatric outpatient services and the deteriorating mental health conditions among youth.
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