"My heart hurts so much"...250,000 pediatric and adolescent psychiatric patients this year alone.

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As the number of children suffering from "heart disease" has increased recently, the number of children and adolescents who received treatment at pediatric and adolescent psychiatric hospitals has increased sharply, according to a survey.

According to the Hankyoreh newspaper, it is not easy to even make an appointment at a pediatric and adolescent psychiatric hospital. Pediatric and adolescent psychiatrists at major university hospitals must wait for the next three to five years to receive medical treatment.

According to an analysis of data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service by Seo Young-seok, a lawmaker of the Democratic Party of Korea, 2,066 mental health hospitals and clinics nationwide treated children and adolescents under the age of 18 in the first half of this year (as of June), with 249,059 patients.

The number of children and adolescents who received psychiatric treatment steadily increased from 186,361 in 2019 to 307,097 last year. The number of patients has increased by 64.7% over the past four years, and the number is expected to increase further this year.

By region, in particular, children and adolescents' psychiatric hospitals and patients were the most common in Gangnam-gu, Seoul (Gangnam, Seocho, and Songpa-gu).

As of the first half of this year, there were 599 psychiatric hospitals that treated children and adolescents in Seoul, and the number of patients was 66,844.

Among them, there are 215 hospitals, 36% of Seoul, and 23,374 patients, accounting for 35%.

Experts cite stress on entrance exams, school violence, lack of social skills after the COVID-19 pandemic, and smartphone addiction as reasons for the increase in the number of psychiatric patients in children and adolescents.

In addition, in recent years, there have been more cases of visiting hospitals due to indiscriminate exposure to digital sex crimes and online gambling.

"If the heated competition for entrance exams is not resolved, youth depression will not decrease," medical experts said. "It is necessary to prepare measures at the national level for children suffering from mental health problems."

Reporter Park Sun-young of Digital News Team