For the first time, mental disorders increased in 2021 to become the main cause of hospitalization among young people aged 10 to 24 in Switzerland.
The young Swiss women were hospitalized at a rate “unprecedentedlast year for mental health problems, the national statistics office said on Monday, pointing the finger at the Covid-19 pandemic.
For the first time, mental disorders rose in 2021 to become the leading cause of hospitalization among young people aged 10 to 24 in Switzerland, ahead of injuries, the country’s Federal Statistical Office (FSO) said. As elsewhere, Swiss youth are seeing mental health problems increase and hospitalizations have increased by an average of 3.4% between 2012 and 2019 in this age group.
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But last year, FSO analysis found a dramatic 26% increase in hospital admissions of girls and young women for mental and behavioral problems. “Among young women, this is a truly unprecedented increase… It’s exceptional“, told AFP Tania Andreani, of the health section of the OFS.
For men of the same age, these admissions increased by 6%, underlines the statistics office. The youngest girls, aged 10 to 14, are the most affected (+52%). In 2021, 1% of girls aged 10 to 14 in Switzerland were hospitalized for psychiatric problems.
Leap of depressions
The OFS did not provide an explanation, but Ms Andreani acknowledged that “the pandemic surely had its part to play“. In comparing the monthly number of hospital admissions to pandemic measures, there were clear parallels, she said, highlighting the “enormous change in the functioning of society“.
There is insufficient data to establish a direct link, but the World Health Organization has pointed out that the pandemic has taken a toll on mental health. Cases of anxiety and depression have increased by more than 25% worldwide in 2020 alone, according to the WHO.
The OFS study also reveals an increase in levels of depression, particularly among young women in Switzerland, with a 14% increase in 2020, before swelling by 42% last year.
Among young men, the increase was 14% in 2021. Even more worrying, 3,124 young people of both sexes were hospitalized for self-harm and attempted suicide last year, which represents a jump of 26% compared to 2020. Young women and girls accounted for 70% of these cases.
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