Medical admissions among adolescents with restrictive eating disorders increased more than two-fold at a hospital during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to the average number of admissions in the previous years, suggests a new study.

The study published online in Pediatrics included 297 admissions for 248 patients, 10-23 years of age, from March 1, 2017 through March 31, 2021. Around 90% of the subjects were female and most had a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa or atypical anorexia nervosa.

Admissions related to eating disorders per month were stable before the pandemic, and were found to decrease in April 2020. However, the admissions then showed a significant rise all through the study period. There were 125 admissions from April 1, 2020, till March 31, 2021. During the previous three years, the average number of admissions per year was 56… (Medscape)