Key Points

Week 19 (May 10–16, 2021):

• In the emergency room:

  • most indicators are down;

  • among children, however, visits for mood disorders and suicidal acts remain at levels higher than those in 2019 and 2018;

• In the SOS Médecins network among adults, visits for anxiety and behavioral disorders were on the rise.

Note: Week 12 of 2020 marked the start of the first lockdown and was accompanied by unusual trends in most indicators. For this reason, for weeks 12 through 19 of 2021, changes in mental health indicators will be compared to data from 2019 and 2018.

Data on emergency department visits from the OSCOUR® network

• Among adults (aged 15 and older), visits for suicidal behavior, anxiety disorders, and mood disorders were down in the last week compared to previous weeks. However, there has been an upward trend since week 7 in visits for anxiety disorders among those aged 45–64 (+7%, or +49 visits this week). These indicators remained at levels comparable to or even lower than those in 2019 and 2018;

• Among children under 15, three weeks after schools reopened, anxiety disorders (-39%, or -123 visits) and mood disorders (-23%, or -38 visits) were down, while suicidal acts remained stable (-1.22%, or -2 visits) after two consecutive weeks of increases. Visits for mood disorders and suicidal acts were higher than those observed in 2019 and 2018, while anxiety disorders remained at comparable levels. Visits for conduct disorders were also down by 11% (-42 visits).

Medical procedure data from SOS Médecins

• Medical procedures for anxiety were up among adults (+12%, or +156 procedures). Activity levels for both adults and children remained comparable to those of 2019–2018.

• Procedures for depressive disorders were stable among children and adults but remained slightly higher than in 2019 and 2018 among those aged 15–44.

• Procedures for behavioral disorders increased among those aged 45–64 (+9 procedures in H1 2019 vs. 1 in H1 2018), with levels comparable to those of 2019 and 2018

No notable changes were observed in the other mental health indicators being monitored.