French emergency department visits for mental health disorders rose after 2021, nationwide study finds

Emergency department visits for mental health disorders in France increased steadily after 2021, while accounting for approximately 3% of all emergency department visits throughout 2017–2024, according to the abstract of a nationwide retrospective observational study. The study examined visits involving patients aged 16 years and older in the French national emergency department database, which records daily visits from public and private hospitals authorised to provide emergency care. Researchers aggregated the data by sex, age group and psychiatric diagnostic category, then modelled weekly visit counts across the study period using a seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) model.

The model assessed temporal patterns and generated counterfactual post-pandemic estimates based on pre-COVID trends. The difference was almost entirely accounted for by women, whose visits were estimated at 249 per week above the counterfactual expectation, or 6.4% higher, with an interval of 4.6% to 7.3%. The post-pandemic level among people aged 16–24 years was estimated to be 16.1% higher than projected, with an interval of 14.4% to 17.8%.

The abstract also reports more urgent care seeking among women and people aged 16–24 years, and for schizophrenia, mood disorders, and behavioural and emotional disorders. Most diagnostic categories had higher-than-expected post-pandemic visit levels, but visits related to psychoactive substance use were lower by an estimated 261 per week, or 8.6%, with an interval of −10.3% to −6.9%. These findings combine observed emergency department use with model-based counterfactual estimates, so they do not establish that the COVID-19 pandemic caused the reported differences.

The retrospective design, restriction to patients aged 16 and older, and aggregation by demographic and diagnostic categories also limit what can be inferred about individual clinical needs or the reasons for care seeking. Overall, the study describes increased demand for urgent psychiatric care in France after 2021, particularly among women and people aged 16–24 years, even as the overall proportion of emergency department visits involving mental health disorders remained broadly stable.

Subject of Research: Trends in French emergency department visits for mental health disorders from 2017 to 2024

Article Title: Trends in emergency department visits for mental health disorders in France, 2017–2024: a nationwide observational study

Article References: Perozziello, A., Gregoire, A., Matton, C., Sta, A., & Dauriac-Le Masson, V. (2026). Trends in emergency department visits for mental health disorders in France, 2017–2024: a nationwide observational study. BMC Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-026-29806-8

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12889-026-29806-8

Keywords: mental health disorders, emergency department visits, France, COVID-19, psychiatric care, retrospective study, SARIMA modelling, health services, Trends, emergency, department, visits