Coronavirus shutdown cut drug hospital admission

The coronavirus pandemic has slashed the number of teenagers and people aged in their early 20s rushed to hospital suffering ­alcohol and drug emergencies.

The coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns may have unleashed a mental health crisis among young Victorians but it did slash the number of teenagers and people aged in their early 20s rushed to hospital suffering ­alcohol and drug emergencies.

Victorian Agency for Health Information data reveals during both lockdowns, the number of emergency department presentations linked to alcohol and drug use plunged in the 15-24 age group.

A child and adolescent psychiatrist said the sharp fall could in large part be explained by the fact that lockdown restrictions meant young people “couldn’t get to their dealers”.

“They weren’t going out to access alcohol, and they couldn’t get to their dealers to buy drugs,” the mental health expert said.

VAHI data seen by The Australian of key medical categories among teens and those in their early 20s saw double-digit falls in hospital emergencies.

The data — included in a confidential report marked “for ­internal improvement, not for publication” — focuses on the six-week average to September 6.

In this period, weekly average emergency department presentations linked to alcohol and other drugs fell from 154 in 2019 to 133 in 2020, a fall of 13.6 per cent.

The data reveals a steep decline in these cases in April in conjunction with Victoria’s lockdown, a steep increase as Victoria emerged from restrictions, before another sudden fall in July when Stage 3 and Stage 4 restrictions were imposed.

The decline in alcohol and drug-related cases in this age group offers a dramatic contrast to the sharp rise in emergencies across multiple mental health categories in the lockdowns.

VAHI data revealed increases of 15 per cent in cases involving “psychiatric examination, suicide attempt, ideation” and a 26.7 per cent jump in cases of self-harm cases and suicide ­attempts in the same six-week ­period up to September 6.

The most serious drug and ­alcohol-related admissions requiring resuscitation emergency treatment fell, as a six-week ave­rage up to September 6, from 49.8 in 2019 to 44.2 this year, a drop of 11.2 per cent.

Among the biggest falls were in young Victorians requiring treatment for alcohol-related emergencies, with the six-week average dropping from 48.7 to 23.3, a reduction of 52.2 per cent.

The VAHI report describes this as a “significant variance”.

In this category, the number of cases needing resuscitation and emergency care was 6.8 in 2020, a 48.5 per cent drop on the 2019 number of 13.2.