2.1. Study population and sample
This study was planned as a cross-sectional study, and conducted between December 2018 and November 2019 at the Outpatient Clinic of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Manisa Celal Bayar University Faculty of Medicine (MCBUFM). All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Permission for this study was obtained from the MCBUFM Health Sciences Institute Ethics Committee (number 20.478.486, dated 01/08/2018 and 01/10/2019).
For the patient group, children aged between 11–18 years who visited the outpatient clinic and were diagnosed with OCD after the onset of the study were referred to the researcher. A semi-structured psychiatric interview conducted by the researcher was used to identify patients diagnosed with OCD for inclusion in the study based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, as described below.
For the healthy control group, children aged between 11–18 years who were admitted to the MCBUFM Pediatric Outpatient Clinic, as a prerequisite for swimming course, gym and dormitory admission, who had no chronic or acute disease, and who had not been previously diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder were referred to the researcher. Of these, subjects who did not meet the diagnostic criteria of a psychiatric disorder based on the semi-structured psychiatric interview conducted by the researcher were included in the study as controls if they met the inclusion and exclusion criteria, as described below.
Before the clinical evaluation, informed consent of the children and parents was obtained after the nature of the procedures had been fully explained.