Peds Research Article Summary - Stacey Pezzenti

For our research article assignment, we chose an article called “Addressing the Clinical Aspect
of COVID-19 on Pediatric Mental Health.” This article talks about how the COVID pandemic
impacts the lives of families not just nationwide but globally. There are obvious physical
complications but serious social, spiritual, emotional, and psychosocial aspects that no one had
thought of looking at. Throughout this article, the authors looked at the contributing factors, the
historical impact of outbreaks and disasters in children, clinical presentation of mental health
issues, and implications for pediatric care from providers. Even before the pandemic, children
were at a greater risk for experiencing higher stress levels and long-term negative health issues.
These risks got significantly higher due to the lockdown from the pandemic which created issues
from the economic, psychological, and physical aspects. According to their research, from April
2020 to October 2020 pediatric visits for mental health increased by 31% in the United States.
Their article reviews the impact COVID-19 had on children’s mental health and ways providers
can change how they handle these children.

Ultimately they have found that there are factors that can contribute to their mental health issues
related to COVID-19. To most of these children, school has been a way to provide social and
emotional support, meals, and a way for students to receive health services but due to the
lockdown these children were lacking these services. The authors found that losing these
supportive measures provided from the school lead to the early symptoms of these potential
mental health issues. Although school contributed to the cause, there were also financial issues
from parents that affected the whole household. This left families with food insecurity which
collectively increased stress among families. Other factors found were race disparities which
caused inadequate care and the economic burden of COVID-19 that caused lack of food or basic
home supplies.

The article talked about the historical aspects believing it is vital to understand how adolescents
and children responded to previous outbreaks or quarantines. Most likely the stress from COVID
had increased symptoms for individuals already diagnosed with a mental disorder or at risk
especially if these previous symptoms are related to trauma. According to the article, events such
as COVID-19 can impact a 5-year-old’s life in long lasting negative effects on their health,
education, and relationships. Regardless if it was a natural disaster or an outbreak, there have
been negative effects on children causing fatigue, lack of interest, social isolation, and even
loneliness. Related to the school closures and virtual schooling, there is a seen increase in
children’s anxiety and depression symptoms which has definitely raised a concern.

In addition, the authors looked at the clinical presentations of how these mental health issues are
shown in teens and children. Most studies remained that an impact from the pandemic is
loneliness among children due to the lack of going to school and seeing their friends. There is
also evidence that anxiety and depression still persist post pandemic with symptoms like apathy,
lack of self-care, difficulty focusing, and impaired concentration. Due to the school closures,
children were unsafe from violence that occurred at home and reported an increase in domestic
violence and Internet searches related to resources for them. Along with the anxiety, depression,
and domestic violence, data was collected using the Youth Risk Behavior Survery to investigate
suicidal thoughts in teens. This is used to check teens’ quality of life related to the pandemic and
it’s increase of suicidal thoughts and loneliness.

Finally, it is essential to address approaches that can be made to help with these mental health
concerns. One way is to develop a daily routine for these children to give as much normality as
possible during COVID and recovering. Healthy eating definitely improves their quality of life
since many were facing food scarcity. Sleep hygiene is an important factor because children need
more sleep than adults which can cause complications in their health. Screening is seen as a
helpful tool to identify mental health issues early. There are many other things listed that
providers can address such as response to suicide risk, vaildation of emotional responses, or even
treatment in the primary scope of practice.

Furthermore, understanding how previous outbreaks or disasters have impacted children and
teens’ mental health can simply allow us to understand their response to the COVID-19
pandemic. It is important for professionals to look at the ongoing risk to children’s mental health
during the pandemic and recovery. The whole article just provides a better explanation on how
much more the pandemic has impacted individuals such as children in a different way than just
looking at the effects from all the lives lost.