The increase in adolescents with neuropsychiatric disorders who turn to public health services in Lombardy is to the detriment of children, who find less availability in a system with limited resources. «We’re leaving the little ones out». The alarm comes from Antonella Costantinoleading the Child and adolescent neuropsychiatry at the Polyclinic.
The occasion is the presentation of the 48th Cariplo Foundation notebook, entitled «Neurodevelopment, mental health and psychological well-being of children and adolescents in Lombardy 2015-2022». A journey through data to tell how hospitals and clinics they took care of the discomfort of young people and what the impact of Covid was.
In the last year taken into consideration, explains the research, they were 137 thousand young people in Lombardy with neuropsychic disorders who have been assisted by public facilities or have taken psychotropic drugs. A lower figure than 2019, the peak of a constant pre-Covid increase and which can be seen as a sign of the «saturation of services». Not only that: the estimate is that one user in two has not been intercepted by the system. It is possible that he was forced to turn to private centers due to the long waiting lists, or that he was left without treatment.
It hits the growth in serious cases arriving in the emergency room, witnessed many times by primary doctors. You register a up 61 percent compared to 2016. They also leaven prescriptions for antidepressant and antipsychotic medications (respectively plus 75 and plus 60 percent), especially among girlsdespite Italy being one of the countries with a low propensity to administer psychotropic drugs to very young people.
Always there little girls they come admitted to hospital more frequently (plus 16 percent compared to 2019). «But the places in the child neuropsychiatry departments in Lombardy are insufficient – Costantino reports –: there are 112 and three Ats don’t even have one in their territory». According to the document, between 50 and 85 more would be needed. The effects of this shortage? An increase in admissions of children and teenagers to inappropriate wards.
Another worrying element is the difficulty in creating paths: «Despite the enormous effort of the staff to guarantee answers – says the neuropsychiatrist -, two out of three users among those who arrive in the emergency room and a third of those hospitalized or who have taken psychotropic drugs they have not had contact with local services». A figure which, although an improvement compared to previous years, is “an indication of the extreme criticality in ensuring continuity of care”. Among the dramatic aspects, the increase in young girls attempting to take their own lives: less than 100 in 2016, around 270 in 2016. But the risk is that the phenomenon is underestimated.
The study, coordinated by the University of Pavia and carried out together with Bicocca, the University of Brescia, the Polyclinic, the Mondino, the Spedali Civili and the Region, also analyzes the decline in outpatient services for children aged 0 to 2 years and from 6 to 10 years, calculated on the basis of prevalence (number of cases per thousand children). The consequence? Fewer “possibilities of early detection and treatment of disorders from the early stages of life”. That is to say more difficulties in treatment and higher costs. The same trend is reported for hospitalizations. “The impact of Covid on the new generations has just begun – the conclusion – and will add to the other risk factors”. Among the indications for curbing the emergency, the strengthening of territorial assistancewhich limits access to emergency rooms.
Fondazione Cariplo, for its part, will continue to finance the «Attenta-mente» tender for the third year, dedicated to the psychological well-being of young people, as recalled by president Giovanni Azzone. 2 million euros on the table intended for non-profit organisations, third sector, neuropsychiatry services, schools.
