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| |  DG DISPATCH - AACAP: AD/HD A Major Factor In Tic Disorder By Lara Pullen Special to DG News CHICAGO, IL -- October 27, 1999 -- Individuals with Tourette syndrome (a severe form of tic disorder) who are referred for clinical care also frequently suffer from attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD). A new study suggests that AD/HD may, in fact, account for much of the impairment seen in patients with tic disorder.
At the 46th annual meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Dr. Thomas Spencer, of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), in Boston, presented data from the MGH Study of Tic and AD/HD Disorders, which analyzed 929 consecutive referrals to pediatric psychopharmacology. In this study, the researchers found that while 20 percent of children with AD/HD had a tic disorder, 94 percent of children with a tic disorder had AD/HD. The children with tics plus AD/HD or with AD/HD alone had similarly high rates of mood disorders, antisocial disorders and anxiety disorders. In addition, children in both groups (tics plus AD/HD and AD/HD alone) had an almost identical patterns of cognitive impairment, lower academic achievement, arithmetic learning disabilities and impairment in global assessment of functioning ratings. Tic-related disorders not accounted for by AD/HD included obsessive compulsive disorder and simple phobias. Dr. Spencer emphasized that treatment of AD/HD may be sufficient in those patients with tics plus AD/HD and there may be no need to treat specifically for tics. Only rarely do tics cause impairments and they tend to improve with time even in the absence of pharmacotherapy, he said.
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