Premonitory urges for tics in adult patients with Tourette syndrome.
OBJECTIVE
Patients with Tourette syndrome (TS) often report characteristic sensory experiences, also called premonitory urges (PUs), which precede tic expression and have high diagnostic relevance. This study investigated the usefulness of a scale developed and validated in children and adolescents-the Premonitory Urge for Tics Scale (PUTS, Woods et al., 2005 [13])-for the assessment of PUs in adult patients with TS.


METHODS
Standard statistical methods were applied to test the psychometric properties of the PUTS in 102 adult TS outpatients recruited from two specialist clinics in the United Kingdom.


RESULTS
The PUTS showed good acceptability and endorsement rates, with evenly distributed scores and low floor and ceiling effects. Item-total correlations were moderate to strong; PUTS total scores were significantly correlated with quantitative measures of TS severity. The PUTS showed excellent internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha=0.85) and Spearman's correlations demonstrated satisfactory convergent and discriminant validity.


CONCLUSIONS
Although originally devised to assess urges to tic in young patients with TS, the PUTS demonstrated good psychometric properties in a large sample of adults recruited at specialist TS clinics. This instrument is therefore recommended for use across the life span as a valid and reliable self-report measure of sensory experiences accompanying tic expression.
College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Eleanor
E
Crossley
School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston Brain Centre, Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Stefano
S
Seri
Department of Neurology, St. George's Hospital and Medical School, London, United Kingdom.
Jeremy S
JS
Stern
Department of Neurology, St. George's Hospital and Medical School, London, United Kingdom; Department of Mental Health, Sciences, UCL, London, United Kingdom.
Mary M
MM
Robertson
College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom; Department of Neuropsychiatry, BSMHFT and University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom; Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders, Institute of Neurology, UCL, London, United Kingdom. Electronic address: Andrea.Cavanna@bsmhft.nhs.uk.
Andrea E
AE
Cavanna
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057566:Self Report; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D020323:Tics / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D005879:Tourette Syndrome / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D055815:Young Adult
Adult; PUTS; Premonitory urges; Psychometric properties; Tics; Tourette syndrome