When children and adolescents are admitted to clinics, it is more and more often due to mental illnesses. A quarter of the young clinic patients were treated for depression in 2021 – this is shown by data from the Federal Statistical Office.
Mental illnesses and behavioral disorders are the most common reason for children and adolescents being admitted to hospital. Check Here.
the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden announced that in 2021 almost 81,000 people aged between ten and 17 were hospitalized for such a diagnosis. That corresponds to 19 percent of the 427,600 hospital admissions in this age group. Ten years earlier, the proportion was still significantly lower at 13 percent.
With a good 79,700 cases (also 19 percent), injuries and poisoning were the second most common reason for children and adolescents to be hospitalized in 2021, followed by symptoms for which no more specific diagnosis could be made (eleven percent). These include abdominal and pelvic pain, fainting, and collapse or headaches.
alcohol poisoning is second most common cause of treatment
According to the statistics, depression accounts for the largest proportion of mental illnesses that lead to hospitalization. 21,900 children and young people were therefore treated as inpatients in 2021.
Alcohol-related mental illness and behavioral disorders such as alcohol poisoning, dependency, and withdrawal syndrome were the second most common cause of treatment with 9300 cases.
Injuries are the second most common reason
According to the Federal Office, the proportion of treatments for mental illnesses in all hospital stays of children and adolescents is increasing continuously. In 2011, 75,200 of the 588,300 patients between the ages of 10 and 17 were hospitalized with mental illnesses.
With a share of 13 percent, this was the second most common reason after injuries and poisoning (20 percent). The same applies to the pre-Corona year 2019 with a share of 16 percent, even if in absolute numbers slightly more children were treated for mental illnesses and behavioral disorders than in 2021.
Read More: Euthanasia Draft Legislation in Germany: “What if I can’t take it anymore?”
