Sociodemographic characteristics and comorbid disorders of children and adolescents with tic disorders

Tic disorders are a neuropsychiatric disorder which consisted of from transient tic disorder to chronic tic disorders that have different levels of deteriorations in psychosocial development, self-esteem, family and interpersonal relationships, academic and working areas.In this study, child and adolescents who diagnosed tic disorders, their sociodemografic characteristics and comorbid psychiatric disorders?s distribution has been compared with the control group.Sampling of the study was consisted of 48 child and adolescents with tic disorders who were 7 to 16 years old and referred to the Karadeniz Technical University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry clinic, whom intelligence levels were normal and their parents and teachers. The diagnosis of ?Tic disorders? was based on the DSM-IV criteria.The control group were made up of age and sex matched 48 child and adolescents who admitted to the Karadeniz Technical University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry clinic between 1st November, 2009 to 30th April, 2010, whom intelligence levels were normal and had no tic disorders. Exclusion criteria in which both groups were comorbid severe neurological disease, existince of clinically and psychometrical mental retardation, and presence of other severe organic disorders.Sociodemografic characteristics was detected using ?Semi-Structured Interview Form?, comorbid disorders was determined to predicating the DSM-IV criteria. The ?Child Depression Invantory?, ?The Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders?, and ?Maudsley Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory? are given child and adolescents. Electroensefalography and WISC-R or Stanford Binet tests were applied. The differences between two groups were tested using independent sample t-test, Mann Whitney- U test, and chi-square test. All test values were considered significant at p less than 0.05.The results have showed that there was more tic disorders in male than female, and in children than adolescents. Simple motor tics have been determined in 97.9% of patients, complicated motor tics have been defined in 85.4% of child or adolescents, whereas, vocal tics have been found in 77.1% of patients. At least one psychiatric disorder has been concomitant with tic disorders, the most of them were attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the others were elimination disorders, depressive disorder, and anxiety disorders. ADHD was detected mostly in children, whereas, OCD was determined mostly in adolescents. The psychiatric disorders which detected in control group were similar consequences that in previous studies.Key words: Tic disorders, Psychiatric comorbidity, child, adolescent.