Published: Less than 20 min ago
The number of girls who are in compulsory psychiatric care every year has almost doubled since 2017. Statistics from the National Board of Health and Welfare show a clear increase in eating disorders.
– For younger children with anorexia, weight loss can quickly become serious and even life-threatening, says Niklas Långström at the authority.
The National Board of Health and Welfare’s figures show that the number of girls in round-the-clock psychiatric care has increased in the years 2017 to 2021. Among boys, however, the opposite is seen.
– Boys and girls have slightly different problem profiles. Anxiety and depression problems that are expressed in a worsening eating disorder may have led to girls in particular needing round-the-clock psychiatric care more often, says Niklas Långström, medical expert at the National Board of Health and Welfare.
Clear increase
Children and young people who are cared for under LPT (the Act on Compulsory Psychiatric Care) have also increased in the last five years.
In 2021, 471 people under the age of 18 were taken into compulsory care, which can be compared with 322 people in 2017. Here, too, the increase can be seen above all among girls, who in 2021 accounted for 75 percent of the children and young people who were cared for according to LPT.
The most common diagnosis is eating disorder, which has seen a clear increase in recent years. But what this is due to is difficult to determine, according to the National Board of Health and Welfare. Many different things come into play.
– Anxiety is sometimes managed with eating disorder behaviors among those with genetic vulnerability to develop eating disorders, says Niklas Långström and continues:
– Preoccupation with appearance and weight can be reinforced by social media use. Perhaps a rapid course of illness is also not detected due to social isolation, a busy environment or insufficient student health.
Follow up on the pandemic
Even before the pandemic, the National Board of Health and Welfare saw an increase in young people in compulsory psychiatric care. Whether the covid years have had an impact cannot be said at the moment. The authority will look into this going forward.
– Society and healthcare themselves of course want to reduce the use of forced care, it should be avoided as much as possible. Herein lies the tricky trade-off, sometimes it is not possible to refrain from compulsory care for serious psychiatric conditions. Where eating disorders have clearly increased in recent years, says Niklas Långström.
Facts
Young people in compulsory care
Compulsory psychiatric care is provided as inpatient care according to the LPT (Act on Compulsory Psychiatric Care).
In 2017, a total of 322 children and young people under the age of 18 were cared for in compulsory psychiatric care – 134 boys and 188 girls.
While the number of girls has increased in the last five years, the number of boys has decreased.
In 2021, 352 girls were cared for with the support of LPT, the number of boys was 119.
Source: National Board of Health and Welfare
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Here you can get help
If you are under 18, you can contact a health centre, youth clinic, student health or child and youth psychiatry (bup) where you live.
If you are an adult, you can book an appointment at a health centre, psychiatric clinic or with your occupational health service. You who are up to 20–25 can also contact a youth reception.
In more and more regions, there are special eating disorder clinics. On some of them you need to get a referral from student health or a health centre, on others you can make contact yourself.
You can get help with where to seek care by calling 1177.
There are also various associations that offer support via phone, chat or email. For example, Frisk och Fri (National Association against Eating Disorders) or the association Shedo, which specializes in both eating disorders and self-harming behaviour.
Source: Vårdguiden, 1177.se
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