Shocking report: 121% rise in psychiatric ER visits among children and teens since Oct. 7th
Southern evacuees continued to record a PTSD diagnosis rate six times higher in the war’s third year, according to a report publish by Clalit
Three years into the war, a health snapshot released by Clalit, based on data from approximately five million members, highlights a continuing burden on mental and physical health, with notable increases among children, adolescents and residents evacuated from southern and northern Israel.
The findings span psychiatric emergency care, post-traumatic stress disorder, blood pressure, high cholesterol and medication use for childhood bedwetting. Together, they point to health needs extending well beyond the immediate period of displacement.
Clalit reported a 121% increase in psychiatric emergency room visits by children and adolescents, more than double the comparison level.
The finding concerns visits rather than the number of individual patients. The figures provided do not indicate how many young people sought emergency care, whether some attended more than once, or which conditions accounted for the increase.
Nevertheless, the rise highlights the scale of demand for urgent psychiatric care among young people during the war.
Among residents evacuated from the South, the rate of PTSD diagnoses remained six times higher even in the war’s third year, Clalit reported.
The persistence of that elevated rate suggests that the mental health burden has continued long after the initial evacuation. However, the information released here does not specify the comparison population or baseline used to calculate the sixfold difference.
Diagnosis rates also reflect conditions identified and recorded within the healthcare system; they do not necessarily capture everyone experiencing symptoms.
Among southern evacuees, Clalit reported a 53.7% increase in the rate of uncontrolled blood pressure. Among northern evacuees, the rate of diagnoses of hyperlipidemia, high levels of fats in the blood, including cholesterol—rose by approximately 60%.
Among children from the South, the use of medication for bedwetting increased by 47.8%, according to Clalit.
The figure measures medication use, rather than the overall prevalence of bedwetting. Without additional information about prescribing patterns and the children receiving treatment, it cannot establish how much the condition itself increased or how directly the change was connected to wartime experiences.
Clalit’s approximately five million members provide a substantial basis for examining health trends. But the headline findings supplied do not include absolute patient numbers, the precise comparison periods, age breakdowns or details of the statistical methodology.
The reported percentage increases are relative changes, not percentage-point increases. Their full scale therefore depends on the underlying rates: a large relative increase can represent different numbers of patients depending on how common a condition or service was at the outset.
The snapshot also documents changes occurring during the war; the figures alone cannot establish that the war caused every increase.
Even with those limitations, the findings highlight a sustained burden across several areas of health.
Three years into the war, the elevated rates of psychiatric emergency visits, PTSD diagnoses and physical health concerns underscore the continuing care needs of young people and communities displaced from their homes.