Premonitory urge to tic in tourette's is associated with interoceptive awareness

Background A contribution of aberrant interoceptive awareness to the perception of premonitory urges in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS) has been hypothesized. Methods We assessed interoceptive awareness in 19 adults with GTS and 25 age‐matched healthy controls using the heartbeat counting task....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Movement disorders 2015-08, Vol.30 (9), p.1198-1202
Main Authors: Ganos, Christos, Garrido, Alicia, Navalpotro-Gómez, Irene, Ricciardi, Lucia, Martino, Davide, Edwards, Mark J., Tsakiris, Manos, Haggard, Patrick, Bhatia, Kailash P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Anticipation, Psychological
Awareness - physiology
Case-Control Studies
Female
Gilles de la Tourette syndrome
Humans
interoceptive awareness
Male
Middle Aged
Movement disorders
premonitory urges
Severity of Illness Index
tic disorders
Tics - physiopathology
Tourette Syndrome - physiopathology
Tourette Syndrome - psychology
Young Adult
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Summary:Background A contribution of aberrant interoceptive awareness to the perception of premonitory urges in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS) has been hypothesized. Methods We assessed interoceptive awareness in 19 adults with GTS and 25 age‐matched healthy controls using the heartbeat counting task. We also used multiple regression to explore whether the severity of premonitory urges was predicted by interoceptive awareness or severity of tics and obsessive‐compulsive symptoms. Results We observed lower interoceptive awareness in GTS compared with controls. Interoceptive awareness was the strongest predictor of premonitory urges in GTS, with greater interoceptive awareness being associated with more urges. Greater tic severity was also associated with higher rates of premonitory urges. Conclusion The observed relationship between severity of premonitory urges and interoceptive awareness suggests that interoception might be involved in self‐reported premonitory urges in GTS. High levels of interoceptive awareness might reflect a self‐attentive capacity to perceive urges. © 2015 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society
ISSN:0885-3185
1531-8257
DOI:10.1002/mds.26228