Medical Xpress November 20, 2020
(HealthDay)—Office-based visits for behavioral and psychiatric conditions decreased in association with the COVID-19 pandemic, although increases in telemedicine visits offset these decreases, according to a research letter published online Nov. 17 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Omar Mansour, from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and colleagues characterized quarterly telemedicine and office-based visits from the first quarter of 2018 (2018Q1) through the second quarter of 2020 (2020Q2) and focused on care for six of the most prevalent behavioral and psychiatric conditions.
The researchers found that for the six conditions, total visits decreased from an average of 15.9 million during the first quarter of 2018 and 2019 to 13.0 million in 2020Q1 (18 percent decrease) and then increased to 15.8 million...