NEW YORK, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, U.S. experts have warned of a mental health crisis facing American children, which is now playing out at schools in the form of increased childhood depression, anxiety, panic attacks, eating disorders, fights and thoughts of suicide at alarming levels, reported The Associate Press (AP) on Tuesday.

       "In low-income areas, where adverse childhood experiences were high before the pandemic, the crisis is even more acute and compounded by a shortage of school staff and mental health professionals," said the report.

       Experts told AP while childhood depression and anxiety had been on the rise for years, the pandemic's unrelenting stress and grief amplified the problems, particularly for those already experiencing mental health issues who were cut off from counselors and other school resources during distance learning.

       Meanwhile, "for children in troubled homes, with alcoholic or abusive parents, distance learning meant they had no escape. Those who lacked technology or had spotty internet connections were isolated even more than their peers and fell further behind academically and socially," said the report.

       In early 2021, emergency room visits in the United States for suspected suicide attempts were 51 percent higher for adolescent girls and 4 percent higher for adolescent boys compared to the same period in 2019, the news agency quoted a research as saying.