Many More Kids Hospitalized for Mental Illness

By HealthDay

Short-stay hospitalizations of children with mental illnesses surged between 1996 and 2007, while psychiatric admissions among the elderly declined in that period, according to a new study examining changing patterns in psychiatric hospitalization in the United States.

Admissions for children aged 5 to 13 surged 81 percent in that time period-- from 156 per 100,000 children in the