Pandemic effects on children and adolescents worry experts

The Jornal do USP no Ar received today (1st) Guilherme Polanczyk, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry of the Faculty of Medicine (FM) of USP, to present the III Symposium of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Service (Sepia) , from Psychiatric Institute of Hospital das Clínicas (HC), during which researchers and specialists will discuss the effects of the pandemic on the behavior of children and adolescents.

He explains that, in relation to specialists, the concern with children and adolescents is manifested both from a theoretical and a clinical point of view. “We are really concerned, especially because emotional problems in children and adolescents precede those of adults”, points out Polanczyk.

The effects of the pandemic and quarantine on children and adolescents are manifested in different ways, because these groups are at different times in life and in their own construction as an individual. In the case of young people and adolescents, it is in the social group, in living with friends, that the development of identity takes place. “For this reason, we see teenagers suffering a lot, although we also see many not caring about this situation. There are more dramatic situations, ”he says.