Changes in emergency psychiatric consultations in time of COVID-19: a retrospective observational study in the Verona Academic Hospital over the two pandemic years 2020–2021

Table 3 Interrupted time-series analysis to assess the effect of restrictive measures^* for monthly ED psychiatric consultations^#

ED psychiatric consultations	Coefficient	Newey-West standard error	t	p-value	95% CI
Slope or trajectory of monthly consultations until the introduction of COVID-19 restrictions	-1.49	0.51	-2.90	0.007	(-2.53; -0.44)
Change in the level of consultations in the period immediately following the lockdown	-13.77	9.73	-1.42	0.167	(-33.64; 6.09)
Change in the monthly trend of consultations relative to the pre-lockdown period	2.43	2.69	0.90	0.375	(-3.07; 7.92)
Change in the level of consultations in the period immediately following the new restrictions	-11.84	13.62	-0.87	0.392	(-39.66; 15.99)
Change in the monthly trend of consultations relative to the lockdown period	0.98	2.83	0.35	0.730	(-4.80; 6.76)
Starting level of consultations	108.66	5.46	19.90	< 0.001	(97.51; 119.81)

^* First intervention: 9 March 2020 (lockdown for the first pandemic wave); second intervention: 13 October 2020 (new restrictive measures for the second and third pandemic waves)
^# No. of months: 36 (from January 2019 to December 2021)

ISSN: 1471-227X