Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on prescription of psychotropic medications in the Italian paediatric population during 2020.

Psychotropic drug utilization in children and adolescents has grown during 2020 in Italy and worldwide, raising alarms from health care clinicians and patient advocates about the increase of burden of mental diseases in paediatric population during the COVID-19 pandemic. A more systematic monitoring of the use of psychotropic medications should be implemented in all countries for collecting relevant information about children and adolescents taking psychotropic drugs, in order to address the present and the future of the mental health of the paediatric population.