Seasonality of Pediatric Mental Health Emergency Department Visits, School, and COVID-19.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore how the academic calendar, and by extension school-year stressors, contributes to the seasonality of pediatric mental health emergency department (ED) visits.

Methods: The authors reviewed all pediatric mental health ED visits at a large urban medical center from 2014 to 2019. Patients who were younger than 18 years at time of presentation, were Durham residents, and had a primary payer of Medicaid were included in the sample population, and the dates of ED visits of the sample population were compared against dates of academic semesters and summer/winter breaks of a relevant school calendar.

Autism, Psychosis, or Both? Unraveling Complex Patient Presentations.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and schizophrenia spectrum disorders co-occur at elevated rates. Although these conditions are diagnostically distinct, they share multiple clinical features and genetic risk factors. This article describes the epidemiologic features and clinical manifestations of psychosis in individuals with ASDs, while also discussing shared genetic risk factors and affected brain regions.