Post-Pandemic Evolution of Suicide Risk in Children and Adolescents Attending a General Hospital Accident and Emergency Department

Lockdowns and other health protective measures, such as social distancing, imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic nurtured unprecedented levels of stress and social isolation around the world. This scenario triggered an increase in suicide thoughts and self-harm behaviours among children and young people. However, the longer-term impact of the pandemic on children's and adolescents' mental health, especially with regard to self-harm, is still to be fully discovered. We carried out a retrospective study where we collected data related to suicide ideation and self-harm behaviours in all patients aged under 18 that required on-call psychiatric services at the General Hospital Accident and Emergency (A p = 0.001), those aged over 15 (X2 = 16.437; p < 0.001) and/or those with a previous history of mental health problems (X2 = 17.823; p < 0.001). We identified an increase in the proportion of males with suicide ideas, especially between 2021 and 2022 (X2 = 8.396; p = 0.015). Our study suggests that children's and adolescents' demand for urgent mental healthcare and their clinical presentations in A&E departments with suicide thoughts and/or self-injuries do not seem to be declining after the pandemic but increasing over time. More research is warranted to understand possible factors involved in this sustained upward trend.