Psychiatric emergency visit trends and characteristics in a mental health epicenter in Istanbul during COVID-19 lockdown.

Background: We aimed to explore the impact of the preventive measures and partial lockdown to the psychiatric emergency department (PED) visits during COVID-19 pandemic in a mental health epicenter in Istanbul.

Methods: A total of 5839 patients admitted to PED during the lockdown period (LP) between March 30 and May 31, 2020, were enrolled in this retrospective cohort study. Data of these patients were compared to those of patients in the same period in 2019 between April 1 and June 2, 2019 (non-LP).