title: Tics and psychiatric comorbidity in children and adolescents.
abstract: This study examined comorbid psychiatric symptoms in a large, community-based sample of children and adolescents. The study sample comprised a total of 3006 school children: 413 preschool (3 to 5 years; 237 males, 176 females; mean age 4 years 2 months, SD 8 months), 1520 elementary school (5 to 12 years; 787 males, 733 females; mean age 8 years 2 months, SD 1 year 11 months), and 1073 secondary school children (12 to 18 years; 573 males, 500 females; mean age 14 years 4 months, SD 1 year 10 months), all of whom were attending regular education programs. Children were evaluated with a teacher-completed DSM-IV-referenced rating scale. The sample was divided into four groups: attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder with tics (ADHD+tics), ADHD without tics (ADHD), tics without ADHD (T), and a comparison group i.e. neither ADHD nor tics (Non). The percentage of children with tic behaviors varied with age: preschool children (22.3%), elementary school children (7.8%), and adolescents (3.4%). Tic behaviors were more common in males than females, regardless of comorbid ADHD symptoms. For many psychiatric symptoms, screening prevalence rates were highest for the ADHD groups (ADHD+tics>ADHD>T>Non). However, obsessive-compulsive and simple and social phobia symptoms were more common in the groups with tic behavior. Findings for a community-based sample show many similarities with studies of clinically referred samples suggesting that teacher-completed ratings of DSM-IV symptoms may be a useful methodology for investigating the phenomenology of tic disorders.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 11794-8790, USA. kgadow@mail.psychiatry.sunysb.edu
authors.forename: Kenneth D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Gadow
authors.forename: Edith E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Nolan
authors.forename: Joyce
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sprafkin
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schwartz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000453:epidemiology; D001519:Behavior; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012574:Schools / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013981:Tic Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology