Rates of Eating Disorders and Teenage Girls Self-Harming Soared During Lockdown
Rates of eating disorder diagnoses and self-harm “substantially increased” among teenage girls in the UK during the first two years of COVID-19 lockdowns, according to a new study
Social isolation, anxiety resulting from changing routines, and school shutdowns contributed to increases in eating disorder diagnoses and self-harm in young girls, but the affected number could be even higher than researchers observed.
The new study, published in the Lancet Child And Adolescent Health journal, looked at nine million records belonging to patients aged 10-24 years, from around 2,000 GP practices across the UK.
“In summary, the incidence of primary care-recorded eating disorder diagnoses and self-harm episodes have substantially increased among teenage girls in the UK in the two years since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the report authors wrote.
The report has come in as a former chief medical officer has told an official probe into COVID-19 that lockdowns “damaged,” and still continue to damage a generation of children.
Teenage Girls
Since March 2020, when the first COVID-19 lockdown was implemented, eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia were 42 percent higher than would be expected for teenage girls aged 13-16, and 32 percent higher for those aged 17-19, they found.
The number of cases of self-harm was 38 percent higher than expected among girls aged 13 to 16.
No increase in self-harm was observed among boys or girls of other ages.
The researchers said they did not identify a rise in reported eating disorders among boys
Lead author Dr Pearl Mok, from the University of Manchester, said: “The reasons for the increase in eating disorder diagnoses and self-harm episodes amongst teenage girls during the pandemic are likely to be complex and could be due to a mixture of issues such as social isolation, anxiety resulting from changing routines, disruption in education, unhealthy social media influences, and increased clinical awareness.
“Our study is large but episodes of self-harm that were not treated by health services were not captured in our data, so the rise in self-harm incidence might have been even greater than we observed. However, it is also possible that cases of self-harm not coming to the attention of services may have exhibited a different pattern.”
The study also found that the increase in eating disorders and self-harm was “greater in less deprived than in more deprived areas.”
“This may reflect differences in service provision and challenges in accessing clinical care, rather than greater increases in risks for self-harm and eating disorders during the pandemic amongst those living in the least than in the most deprived communities,” said Mok.
Commenting on the study, Tom Quinn, director of external affairs at eating disorder charity Beat, said, “These figures are shocking but sadly not surprising; during the height of the pandemic we saw demand for our helpline services spike by 300 percent and it is still remaining high.”
‘Damning Piece Of Evidence’
Molly Kingsley, co-founder of UsForThem, the parent campaign group formed in May 2020 to advocate against school closures told The Epoch Times by email that the study was yet “another damning piece of evidence highlighting harms flowing from the catastrophic policy errors of the pandemic.”
The COVID-19 Inquiry, the UK’s probe into the handling of the government response to COVID-19, commenced last week, however, the probe is not specifically looking at the impact of school closures until 2025.
“What did ministers think would happen to children’s mental and physical health when they locked them behind closed doors and advocated them to replace friends, with screens?” said Kingsley.
“With such a huge amount of data now available on the impacts of lockdown and school closures on children those impacts should have been the first subject under investigation by the COVID-19 Inquiry,” she added.
In response to comments about why the impact on children wasn’t being looked into first, a spokesperson for the inquiry told The Epoch Times by email: “The inquiry is being delivered through modules. In the first modules it will build a picture of the pandemic—looking at how prepared the UK was for a pandemic and why certain decisions were made.
“The inquiry is structured in this way to ensure each issue is investigated with sufficient depth whilst allowing the Inquiry to make progress.”
“Inquiry Chair Baroness Heather Hallett is committed to investigating the impacts on children and young people, including health, well-being and social care, and will do so as soon as possible. It is one of a number of topics which the inquiry must investigate that are set out in our terms of reference,” he added.
Giving evidence relating to the pandemic planning and preparedness on Tuesday to the COVID-19 Inquiry lead counsel, Hugo Keith, former Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies said lockdowns “damaged a generation.”
“The damage I now see to children and students from COVID-19, and the educational impact, tells me that education has a terrific amount of work to do,” she said.
“We have damaged a generation and it is awful as head of a college in Cambridge watching these young people struggle,” Davies said.
“I know in pre-schools they haven’t learned how to socialise and play properly, they haven’t learned how to read at school. We must have plans for them,” she added.
Serious Mental Health Problems
In January, NHS data showed that more than a million children needed treatment for serious mental health problems, including eating disorders, in the time since lockdowns were imposed in England.
From 2020 to early 2022 the UK government imposed multiple COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions.
The England-wide data include children who are suicidal, self-harming, suffering serious depression or anxiety, and those with eating disorders.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We recognise the devastating impact eating disorders can have on an individual and family’s life, which is why we’re investing an additional £2.3 billion a year in NHS mental health services by March 2024, so more adults, children and young people in England can receive appropriate treatment.
“Capacity at children and young people’s community eating disorder services is also being increased across the country thanks to an additional government investment of up to £54 million a year by March 2024.
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