Quality of life in adults with Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome

• Published in: BMC psychiatry 2012-08, Vol.12 (1), p.109-109, Article 109
• Main Authors: Jalenques, Isabelle, Galland, Fabienne, Malet, Laurent, Morand, Dominique, Legrand, Guillaume, Auclair, Candy, Hartmann, Andreas, Derost, Philippe, Durif, Franck
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Adults; Age; Aged; Analysis; Anxiety; Children & youth; Cognitive science; Cognitive Sciences; Depression; Female; France; Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome; Health aspects; Health Status; Health Surveys; Humans; Inventories; Life Sciences; Male; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Mental illness; Middle Aged; Neurobiology; Neurons and Cognition; Neuroscience; Physical and psychological health status; Psychiatric disorders; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Psychiatry; Psychological aspects; Psychology; Psychology and behavior; Quality of Life; Questionnaires; Regression analysis; Studies; Surveys; Surveys and Questionnaires; Tourette syndrome; Tourette Syndrome - physiopathology; Tourette Syndrome - psychology; Tourette's syndrome; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1471-244X; 1471-244X
• DOI: 10.1186/1471-244X-12-109

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. Epidemiological 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. Questionnaires 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. The present study demonstrates a strong relationship between QOL in GTS and psychiatric symptoms, in particular those of depression.