The catastrophic effect of lockdown on children has been laid bare by figures showing a surge in hospital admissions for eating disorders.
They reveal admissions in the last nine months were a third higher compared to the previous year. In one month they were up by 80 per cent.
Girls aged 15 and 16 were the worst affected. Experts also warned that children were arriving in hospital in a more severe and complex state, partly because they hadn t been picked up sooner by GPs or teachers.
Figures obtained by the Mail from NHS Digital show there were 2,292 admissions for youngsters aged ten to 18 with eating disorders between April last year and January, mostly suffering from anorexia and bulimia.
COVID-19: Pandemic worsens eating disorders
The Guardian
Psychiatrists have warned of a “tsunami” of eating disorder patients amid data showing soaring numbers of people experiencing anorexia and bulimia in England during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Agnes Ayton, the chair of the Eating Disorder Faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said the number of people experiencing problems had risen sharply, with conditions such as anorexia thriving in the isolation of lockdown.
“We expect the tsunami [of patients] is still coming. We don’t think it has been and gone,” she said.
She also said that in Oxford, where she works, about 20 percent of people admitted were usually urgent referrals, but this proportion had shot up to 80 percent.
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