Evaluation of New Instruments for Screening and Diagnosis of Tics and Tic Disorders in a Well-Characterized Sample of Youth with Tics and Recruited Controls

Abstract

ABSTRACT Tics and tic disorders can significantly impact children, but limited screening tools and diagnostic challenges may delay access to care. The current study attempted to address these gaps by evaluating sensitivity and specificity of the Motor or Vocal Inventory of Tics (MOVeIT), a tic symptom screener, and the Description of Tic Symptoms (DoTS), a brief diagnostic assessment for tic disorders. Children (n = 100, age 6–17 years old) with tic disorders attending a Tourette specialty clinic and a community-recruited sample without tics completed a gold-standard assessment by a tic expert; these evaluations were compared to child self-report and parent and teacher report versions of the MOVeIT, and child and parent versions of the DoTS. The parent and child MOVeIT met or exceeded pre-specified 85% sensitivity and specificity criteria for detecting the presence of tics when compared to a gold-standard tic expert diagnosis. The Teacher MOVeIT had lower sensitivity (71.4%) but good specificity (95.7%) for identifying any tic symptoms compared to gold standard. For determination of the presence or absence of any tic disorder, sensitivity of both parent and child DoTS was 100%; specificity of the parent DoTS was 92.7% and child DoTS specificity was 75.9%. More work may be needed to refine the teacher MOVeIT, but it is also recognized that tic expression may vary by setting. While the MOVeIT and DoTS parent and child questionnaires demonstrated adequate sensitivity and specificity for determining the presence of tics and tic disorders in this well-defined sample, additional testing in a general population is warranted.