Aims: Since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, studies reported an increase in children's mental health issues and questioned the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on psychiatric symptoms.
Methods: We compared COVID seroconversion in children hospitalized with acute, severe psychiatric symptoms (n = 52) with the sex- and age-matched control group (n = 52) living in the same low-income geographic area and sampled during the same time period.
Results: Contrary to our hypothesis, we observed less seroconverted children with psychiatric conditions 9.61% (95% CI, 3.59-21.80) vs 34.61% (95% CI, 22.33-49.16; χ2 = 14.7, P = 1.24E-4; OR = 0.20; 95% CI, 0.05-0.64).
Conclusion: This suggests a lower direct impact of SARS-CoV-2 compared with the impact of mitigation strategies on psychiatric symptom deterioration in children reported since early stages of the pandemic.
Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; children; mental health; pandemic; psychiatric symptoms.
© 2022 The Authors. Neuropsychopharmacology Reports published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of The Japanese Society of Neuropsychopharmacology.