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Reporting from Turkey's frontier with the civil war in Syria, we examined the demographic characteristics, psychiatric diagnoses and treatments for the Syrian refugee patients who have presented to Gaziantep University, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic through 2016 and the first half of 2017 retrospectively, having aimed to understand the special characteristics and needs of this novel patient group. Within a year and a half, we evaluated 51 children and adolescents and 25 (51%) had come from refugee camps, where primary healthcare services are available. Twenty-eight patients (54.9%) had special educational needs. Among our patients, there were only 15 (29.4%) girls. After our experience with refugee patients, we conclude that the role of primary healthcare services in reaching psychiatric treatment should be investigated for child refugees that special educational needs of Syrian refugees in Turkey needs urgent attention and that more research is needed to establish whether gender may be a factor in negligence of internalising symptoms by refugee families.

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Changes related to the serotonin system play a key role in the etiology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Although we know that platelets are associated with the serotonin system, their relation to ASD has not yet been elucidated. In this study, we aim to investigate platelet parameters in children with ASD. Forty patients with ASD according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5 (DSM‐5) and 30 healthy controls were included in the study. A complete blood count was done to measure parameters relating to platelet morphology. Moreover, prothrombin time (PT) and activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) were evaluated. Lastly, platelet functions were assessed with a platelet functions analyzer 100 (PFA‐100) device by measuring collagen‐ADP and collagen‐epinephrine (EPI) closure times. There was not a significant difference between the groups in terms of platelet count, mean platelet volume (MPV), platelet distribution width, plateletcrit, PT, or aPTT parameters for ASD patients when compared to the control group (P > 0.05). However, MPV in severe ASD, as quantified by the Childhood Autism Rating Scale, was found to be significantly lower when compared to mild to moderate ASD (P = 0.047). Moreover, in terms of platelet functions, the elongation in collagen‐ADP and collagen‐EPI closure times were significantly higher for the ASD group (P = 0.044). These results may suggest an impairment in platelet functions rather than in platelet morphology for children with ASD. Considering these results, further investigation of thrombocyte functions in the ASD may lead to a better understanding of the pathogenesis of ASD and to the development of our limited knowledge of this disorder. Autism Res 2019, 12: 1069–1076. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Lay Summary Serotonin is a chemical that is found in brain as wells as in blood cells that function in blood clotting in the human body. There are problems related to serotonin in brains of people who have autism. Thus, blood clotting cells may also be affected in people who have autism. In this study, we compare blood clotting functions of children with autism with that of healthy controls.

Objective: Physical and mental health are closely related. Psychiatric problems increase in the presence of a physical illness. Consultation liaison psychiatry provides a combination of medical treatment, psychiatric treatment, and psychosocial care to patients when necessary. In this study, we aimed to examine the consultation-liaison services provided by the child and adolescent psychiatry department of a university hospital within two years and to examine the accuracy rates of recognition of childhood psychiatric diseases nonpsychiatry specialists. Methods: Consultations for pediatric patients from other clinics were screened retrospectively at Gaziantep University Hospital between January 1st, 2018, and December 31st, 2019. Data relating to the departments requesting a consultation, reasons for consultation, diagnoses made by children and adolescent psychiatrists, and psychiatric treatments were evaluated. Results: A child and adolescent psychiatry consultations were requested for 290 children over a two-year period. The average age of the cases for whom consultation was requested was 12.1, and 61% of the cases were female. The most common reason for consultation was suicide attempts (26.6%). The most common mental disorder was depression (19%), while the most common intervention was psychoeducation (48.9%). The disorders with the highest diagnostic accuracy were delirium (100%), autism (100%), substance use disorders (80%), and mental disability (70%), while the disorders with the lowest diagnostic accuracy were psychotic disorder (0%), depression (%18,2) and anxiety disorder (22.2%). Conclusion:Mental disorders are common in children with physical illnesses, but the rate of correct recognition of childhood mental disorders by other physicians is low. The high rates of psychiatric disorders highlight the importance of educating physicians that work with children about childhood mental problems and cooperation between child psychiatrists and other physicians.