Quality of life in adults with Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome.
BACKGROUND
Few studies have used standardized QOL instruments to assess the quality of life (QOL) in Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome (GTS) patients. This work investigates the QOL of adult GTS patients and examines the relationships between physical and psychological variables and QOL.


METHODS
Epidemiological investigation by anonymous national postal survey of QOL of patients of the French Association of Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome (AFGTS) aged 16 years or older. The clinical and QOL measures were collected by four questionnaires: a sociodemographic and GTS-related symptoms questionnaire, the World Health Organization Quality Of Life questionnaire (WHOQOL-26), the Functional Status Questionnaire (FSQ), and a self-rating questionnaire on psychiatric symptoms (SCL-90), all validated in French. We used stepwise regression analysis to explicitly investigate the relationships between physical and psychological variables and QOL domains in GTS.


RESULTS
Questionnaires were posted to 303 patients, of whom 167 (55%) completed and returned them. Our results, adjusted for age and gender, show that patients with GTS have a worse QOL than the general healthy population. In particular, the "Depression" psychological variable was a significant predictor of impairment in all WHOQOL-26 domains, psychological but also physical and social.


CONCLUSIONS
The present study demonstrates a strong relationship between QOL in GTS and psychiatric symptoms, in particular those of depression.
CHU Clermont-Ferrand, Pôle de Psychiatrie, Service de Psychiatrie de l'adulte et psychologie médicale A, Hôpital Gabriel Montpied, Clermont-Ferrand, F-63003, France. ijalenques@chu-clermontferrand.fr
Isabelle
I
Jalenques
Fabienne
F
Galland
Laurent
L
Malet
Dominique
D
Morand
Guillaume
G
Legrand
Candy
C
Auclair
Andreas
A
Hartmann
Philippe
P
Derost
Franck
F
Durif
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D005879:Tourette Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult