© 2003 BMJ Publishing Group, Royal College of Psychiatrists, & British Psychological Society
Prevalence
22% of preschool children, 8% of primary school students and 3% of adolescents have tics
Gadow K, Nolan E, Sprafkin J et al. Tics and psychiatric comorbidity in children and adolescents. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 2002 May; 44: 330–8.[CrossRef][Medline]
QUESTION: What is the prevalence of tics in a community sample of children? What is the relationship between tics and psychiatric symptoms?
Key Words: tics
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Cross sectional study.
12 preschools and 16 public elementary and secondary schools in Missouri, Wisconsin and New York, USA.
3006 school children; 413 aged 3–5 years, 1520 aged 5–12 years and 1073 aged 12–18 years.
A teacher-rated DSM-IV referenced scale was used to assess tics and other psychiatric symptoms. Children were classified into 4 groups: 1) attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with tics; 2) ADHD without tics; 3) tics without ADHD, and 4) neither ADHD nor tics.
22% of preschool children, 8% of 5–12 year olds and 3% of adolescents had tics (table). Tics were more common in males, regardless of comorbid ADHD symptoms (p<0.05). Obsessive-compulsive, simple and social phobia symptoms were more common in children with tics (all p<0.05).
Studies of the prevalence and psychiatric comorbidity of chronic tic disorder have been conducted largely with children referred to tic disorder clinics. This study found similar prevalence and comorbidity rates
City of Hope Medical Center
Duarte, USA
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
