Abstract
BackgroundFew 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.MethodsEpidemiological 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.ResultsQuestionnaires 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.ConclusionsThe present study demonstrates a strong relationship between QOL in GTS and psychiatric symptoms, in particular those of depression.
Highlights
Few studies have used standardized QOL instruments to assess the quality of life (QOL) in Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome (GTS) patients
Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS) is a developmental neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by multiple motor tics and one or more vocal tics occurring over a period of more than one year [1]
Data collection procedures and instruments The clinical and QOL measures were collected by four questionnaires: a sociodemographic and GTS-related symptoms questionnaire, the WHOQOL-26 (World Health Organization Quality Of Life) questionnaire, the FSQ (Functional Status Questionnaire), and the SCL-90, all validated in French [16,17,18,19,20,21,22]
Summary
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. Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS) is a developmental neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by multiple motor tics and one or more vocal tics occurring over a period of more than one year [1]. Recent studies have suggested that GTS occurs in at least 1% of the worldwide population, with a male/female ratio of 3:1, and a prevalence between 0.4% and 3.8% for ages from 5 to 18 years [2]. Depression, anxiety, self-injurious behaviours (SIB) and conduct disorders (CD) are common in adult GTS subjects [7,9]. Major handicaps for patients affected by GTS are delayed diagnosis, non-specialist management, and inadequate educational and social support [8]
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