Editorial: Adolescent Eating Disorders Are Increasing and We Need to Do More

Abstract

The negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on youth mental health have been significant.1,2 The impact of the pandemic on eating disorders has been particularly notable, given the numerous risk factors exacerbated during the pandemic, such as increased social isolation and body image concerns associated with amplified virtual and social media exposure.3 Although the rise of eating disorder presentations have been documented by increased pediatric hospital admissions4 at an earlier ages of onset,5 there has, until this time, not been a meta-analytical approach to understanding the full scope of this impact on health care use. In our ever-burdened pediatric mental health care systems, it is crucial for the field to understand how health care use for eating disorders has been affected. As such, we read with keen interest the article by Madigan etal.6 This meta-analysis fills a gap in the field, analyzing the health care visits of close to 150,000 children and adolescents across more than 300 sites. This study highlights an important theme that has been observed across our mental health systems: there has been a significant increase in severe eating disorder symptom expression since the start of the pandemic. This article provides the empirical evidence to support what has been anecdotally and qualitatively observed across sites-namely, an increased use of higher levels of care, such as emergency rooms and inpatient units, in addition to outpatient care. This increase in service use for eating disorders has been particularly sharp among girls, adolescents, and those presenting with restricting presentations such as anorexia nervosa.6.