Introduction:

The COVID-19 pandemic altered the lives of the children's population. According to UNICEF, 1 in 7 children has been directly affected by lockdowns around the world.

Objective:

Describe the characteristics of the consultation and the diagnoses of the patients who attended the Mental Health Department of the Children General Pediatric Hospital “Acosta Ñu”, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Materials and methods:

Observational, descriptive, cross-sectional, retrospective study that included those patients who attended the Mental Health Department of the Children Pediatric Hospital “Acosta Ñu” with psychopathological diagnoses during the COVID-19 pandemic in the period from March 2020 to March 2021. The variables were: age, sex, origin, recruitment areas, type of consultation, mode of consultation, reason for mental health evaluation, diagnosis, treatment, hospitalization. Data were analyzed in IBM SPSS v.21 (demo) using descriptive statistics. The protocol was approved by the ethics committee.

Results:

130 participants were included with a median age of 13.5 years. 81.5% came from the Central Department and 53.8% were female. 87.7% were patients in follow-up and 69.2% had the consultation in person. The most frequent diagnoses were depression in 51.5% and neglect or abandonment in 27.7%. Association of diagnoses was observed in 58.1%. 70.8% required treatment and 10.8% required hospitalization.

Conclusion:

Female adolescents consulted more frequently. The most frequent diagnosis was depression, accompanied by a history of sexual abuse or neglect or abandonment.

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