The impact of the two-year COVID-19 pandemic on hospital admission and readmissions of children and adolescents because of mental health problems.

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the specific risk factors and psycho-social and clinical features of hospitalized neuropsychiatric patients during the COVID pandemic and to analyze the hospital readmission phenomenon, which, according to recent studies, increased in frequency during the first pandemic period.

Patients And Methods: This observational retrospective cohort study examined 375 patients aged between 0 and 17 years who were hospitalized between 1 February 2018 and 31 March 2022 due to neuropsychiatric issues. The majority of the patients were girls: there were 265 girls compared to 110 boys ( = 13.