BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1607649
Evolving sex-specific trends in mental health-related emergency department visits (2010-2023): insights from 643 French general hospitals
Provisionally accepted
- Department of psychiatry, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France
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Psychiatric disorders account for a significant proportion of emergency department (ED) visits, with notable sexspecific differences. However, how these disparities have evolved over time, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic, remains poorly understood.We analyzed yearly ED visit data from 2010 to 2023 for individuals aged 18-65 with diagnoses of substance use, affective, and non-affective psychotic disorders from 643 French general hospitals. Fixed-effects models were used to examine sex-specific trends, with 2010 as the reference year for baseline analyses and 2019 for pandemic-era comparisons.The mean rate of mental health-related ED visits was 6.8% during the study period. Compared to females, males exhibited a significant increase in ED visits related to affective and non-affective psychotic disorders since 2010.Compared to females, males showed significant reductions in substance use disorder visits post-pandemic (2021-2023 vs. 2019). Affective disorder visits among males transiently decreased in 2022.Our findings highlight evolving sex-specific trends in mental health-related ED visits, with males experiencing increases since 2010, and females facing disproportionate post-COVID-19 burdens. These findings can guide sex-specific healthcare resource allocation and enhance the delivery of mental health services.
Keywords: emergency department, Affective Disorders, Non-affective psychotic disorders, substance use disorders, sex differences, Temporal Trends, General Hospitals
Received: 07 Apr 2025; Accepted: 01 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Barbalat and Franck. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Guillaume Barbalat, Department of psychiatry, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France
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