Journal of Psychosomatic Research
Volume 65, Issue 5 , Pages 473-486 , November 2008

The prevalence and epidemiology of Gilles de la Tourette syndrome: Part 2: Tentative explanations for differing prevalence figures in GTS, including the possible effects of psychopathology, aetiology, cultural differences, and differing phenotypes

  • Mary M. Robertson

      Affiliations

    • Corresponding Author Information2nd Floor Charles Bell House, 67-73 Riding House Street, London W1W – 7EJ, United Kingdom.

Received 10 April 2007 ,Revised 11 March 2008 ,Accepted 11 March 2008.

References 

  1. American Psychiatric Association . Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. DSM-IV-TR, 4th Edition Revised. Washington (DC0: American Psychiatric Association; 2002;
  2. World Health Organisation . Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 10th ed.. Geneva: World Health Organisation; 1992;
  3. Robertson MM. The international prevalence, epidemiology and clinical phenomenology of Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome: Part 1—the epidemiological and prevalence studies. J Psychosom Res. 2008;65:
  4. Leckman JF, Zhang H, Vitale A, et al. Course of tic severity in Tourette Syndrome: the first two decades. Pediatrics,. 1998;102:14–19
  5. Robertson MM, Gourdie A. Familial Tourette's syndrome in a large British pedigree: Associated psychopathology, severity of Tourette's and potential for linkage analysis. Br J Psychiatry. 1990;156:515–521
  6. Pappert EJ, Goetz CJ, Loius ED, et al. Objective assessments of longitudinal outcome in Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome. Neurology. 2003;61:936–940
  7. Tanner CM, Goldman SM. Epidemiology of Tourette syndrome. Neurol Clin. 1997;15:395–402
  8. Kuperman S. Tics and Tourette's syndrome in childhood. Semin Pediatr Neurol. 2003;10:35–40
  9. Stefanoff P, Mazurek J. Epidemiological methods used in the prevalence of Tourette syndrome. Psychiatr Pol. 2003;37:97–107
  10. Scahill L, Sukhodolsky DG, Williams SK, Leckman JF. Public health significance of tic disorders in children and adolescents. Adv Neurol. 2005;96:240–248
  11. Lin H, Katsovich L, Ghebremichael M, et al. Psychosocial stress predicts future symptom severities in children and adolescents with Tourette syndrome and/or obsessive–compulsive behavior. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2007;48:157–166
  12. Choiunard S, Ford B. Adult onset tic disorders. J Neurol Neurosurg Neuropsychiatry. 2000;68:738–743
  13. Eapen V, Lees AJ, Lakke JPWF, Trimble MR, Robertson MM. Adult onset tic disorders. Mov Disord. 2002;17:735–740
  14. Burd L, Kerbeshian J. Onset of Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome before 1 year of age. Am J Psychiatry. 1987;144:1066–1067
  15. Robertson MM, Trimble MR, Lees AJ. The psychopathology of the Gilles de la Tourette syndrome: a phenomenological analysis. Br J Psychiatry. 1988;152:383–390
  16. Wand R, Shady G, Broder R, Furer P, Staley D. Tourette syndrome: issues in diagnosis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 1992;16:449–451Winter
  17. Erenberg G, Cruse RP, Rothner AD. Tourette syndrome: an analysis of 200 pediatric and adolescent cases. Cleve Clin Q. 1986;53:127–131
  18. Coffey BJ, Biederman J, Geller D, et al. Reexamining tic persistence and tic-associated impairment in Tourette's disorder: findings from a naturalistic follow-up study. J Nerv Ment Dis. 2004;192:776–780
  19. Bloch MH, Leckman JF, Zhu H, Peterson BS. Caudate volumes in childhood predict symptom severity in adults with Tourette syndrome. Neurology. 2005;65:1253–1258
  20. Coffey BJ, Biederman J, Geller DA, et al. Distinguishing illness severity from tic severity in children and adolescents with Tourette's disorder. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2000;39:556–561
  21. Nomoto F, Machiyama Y. An epidemiological study of tics. Jpn J Psychiatry Neurol. 1990;44:649–655
  22. Wong CK, Lau JT. Psychiatric morbidity in a Chinese primary school in Hong Kong. Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 1992;26:459–466
  23. Wang HS, Kuo MF. Tourette's syndrome in Taiwan: an epidemiological study of tic disorders in an elementary school at Taipei County. Brain Dev. 2003;25(Suppl 1):S29–S31
  24. Jin R, Zheng RY, Huang WW, Xu HQ, Shao P, Chen H, et al. Study on the prevalence of Tourette syndrome in children and juveniles aged 7–16 years in Wenzhou area. Zhonghua Liu Xing Bing Xue Za Zhi. 2004;25:131–133
  25. Jin R, Zheng RY, Huang WW, Xu HQ, Shao B, Chen H, et al. Epidemiological survey of Tourette syndrome in children and adolescents in Wenzhou P.R. China. Eur J Epidemiol. 2005;20:925–927
  26. Zheng RY, Jin R, Xu HQ, Huang WW, Chen H, Shao B, et al. Study on the prevalence of tic disorders in schoolchildren aged 16 years old in Wenzhou. Zhongua Liu Xing Bing Za Zhi. 2004;25:745–747
  27. Eastham JH, Lacro JP, Jeste DV. Ethnicity and movement disorders Mt Sinai. J Med. 1996;63:314–319
  28. Mc Creadie RG, Ohaeri JU. Movement disorder in never and minimally treated Nigerian schizophrenic patients. Br J Psychiatry. 1994;164:184–189
  29. Van Rensburg A. Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation (PhD in Psychology) Tourette syndrome among Xhosa Learners in schools in the Province of the Eastern Cape. University of Fort Hare, Alice, Eastern Cape Province. South Africa (unpublished) 2002
  30. Lucas AR, Beard CM, Rajput AH, Kurland LT. Tourette syndrome in Rochester, Minnesota, 1968-1979. Adv Neurol. 1982;35:267–269
  31. Caine ED, McBride MC, Chiverton P, Bamford KA, Rediess S, Shiao J. Tourette's syndrome in Monroe County school children. Neurology. 1988;38:472–475
  32. Robertson MM, Verrill M, Mercer M, James B, Pauls DL. The Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome in New Zealand: a postal survey. Br J Psychiatry. 1994;164:263–266
  33. Curtin . The slavery hypothesis for hypertension among African Americans: the historical evidence. Am J Public Health. 1992;82:1681–1686
  34. Stern J, Robertson MM. The Gilles de la Tourette syndrome. In:  Agrawal N,  Bolton J,  Gaind R,  McMillan P editor. Current themes in psychiatry. vol 4:2008;London [in press]
  35. Ferguson GW, Shultz JM, Bisno AL. Epidemiology of acute rheumatic fever in a multiethnic, multiracial urban community: the Miami-Dade County experience. J Infect Dis. 1991;164:720–725
  36. Passaro DJ, Smitht DS, Hett EC, et al. Invasive group A streptococcal infections in the San Francisco Bay area, 1989-99. Epidemiol Infect. 2002;129:471–478
  37. van Zyl ML, van Staden DA, Potgieter MD. Beta-hemolytic streptococci as a cause of sore throat in the Pretoria area. S Afr Med J. 1981;59:783–784
  38. Weitzman M, Byrd RS, Auinger P. Black and white middle class children who have private health insurance in the United States. Pediatrics. 1999;104(1 Pt 2):151–157
  39. Tishkoff SA, Kidd KK. Implications of biogeography of human populations for “race” and medicine. Nat Genet. 2004;36(11 Suppl):S21–S27
  40. Sykes B. The seven daughters of Eve. London: Corgi Books; 2002;
  41. Richards M, Smalley K, Sykes B, Hedges R. Archeology and genetics: analysing DNA from skeletal remains. World Archeol. 1993;25:18–28
  42. Jakobsson M, Scholz SW, Scheet P, et al. Genotype, haplotype and copy-number variation in worldwide human populations. Nature. 2008;451:998–1003(21st Feb 2008)
  43. Li JZ, Absher DM, Tang H, et al. Worldwide human relationships inferred from genome wide patterns of variation. Science. 2008;319:1100–1104
  44. Tishkoff SA, Goldman A, Calafell F, et al. A global haplotype analysis of the myotonic dystrophy locus: implications for the evolution of modern humans and for the origin of myotonic dystrophy mutations. Am J Hum Genet. 1998;62:1389–1402
  45. Joubert J, Botha MC. Huntington disease in South African blacks: a report of 8 cases. S Afr Med J. 1988;73:489–494
  46. Scrimgeour EM, Samman Y, Brock DJ. Huntington's disease in a Sudanese family from Khartoum. Hum Genet. 1995;96:624–625
  47. Silber E, Kromberg J, Temlett JA, Krause A, Saffer D. Huntington's disease confirmed by genetic testing in five African families. Mov Disord. 1998;13:726–730
  48. Dean G, Bhigjee AI, Bill PL, Fritz V, Chikanza IC, Thomas JE, et al. Multiple sclerosis in black South Africans and Zimbabweans. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1994;57:1064–1069
  49. Wilson M, Thompson L. The Oxford History of South Africa. 1. South Africa to 1870. Oxford University Press 1973, pages 88, 91, 233, 234
  50. Davenport TRH. South Africa: a modern history (2nd edition) Cambridge Commonwealth Series. London: The Macmillan Press; 1979;
  51. In:  Elphick R,  Giliomee H editor. The Shaping of South African Society 1652-1840. Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman; 1992;
  52. Pelser, I. Die Psigiese lewensvoltrekking van die kind met Tourette- sindroom. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Psychology Department, University of Pretoria. 1994
  53. McMahon WM, van de Wetering BJ, Filloux F, Betit K, Coon H, Leppert M. Bilineal transmission and phenotypic variation of Tourette's disorder in a large pedigree. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1996;35:672–680
  54. Heese HF. Groep sonder grense. Die rol en status van die gemengde bevolking aan die Kaap 1652-1795. Menlopark SA: Protea Bookhuis; 2005;
  55. Giliomee H. The Afrikaners: biography of a people. London: Hurst and Company; 2003;
  56. van der Ross RE. Up from slavery: slaves at the Cape; their origins, treatment and contribution. Kenilworth, Cape: Ampersand Press; 2005;in association with the University of the Western Cape
  57. Heese JA. Die herkoms van die Afrikaner 1657-1867. Cape Town: AA Balkema; 1971;
  58. Ball E. Slaves in the Family. Penguin (London): Viking Publishers; 1998;
  59. Robertson MM. The Gilles de la Tourette syndrome: the current status. Br J Psychiatry. 1989;154:147–169
  60. Robertson MM. Annotation: Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome—an update. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 1994;35:597–611
  61. Eapen V, Robertson MM. Clinical correlates of Tourette's disorder across cultures: a comparative study between UAE and UK. Prim Care Companion J Clin Psychiatry. 2008;10:103–107
  62. Abuzzahab FE, Anderson O. Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome; international registry. Minn Med. 1973;56:492–496
  63. Staley D, Wand R, Shady G. Tourette disorder: a cross-cultural review. Compr Psychiatry. 1997;38:6–16
  64. Freeman RD, Fast DK, Burd L, Kerbashian J, Robertson MM, Sandor P. An international perspective on Tourette syndrome: selected findings from 3500 individuals in 22 countries. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2000;42:436–447
  65. Bruun RD. Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome. An overview of clinical experience. J Am Acad Child Psychiatry. 1984;23:126–133
  66. Khalifa , von Knorring Khalifa N, von Knorring AL. Tourette syndrome and other tic disorders in a total population of children: clinical assessment and background. Acta Paediatrica. 2005;94:1608–1614
  67. Robertson MM. Invited review. Tourette syndrome, associated conditions and the complexity of treatment. Brain. 2000;123:425–462
  68. Robertson MM. Tourette syndrome attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and Tourette syndrome: the relationship and treatment implications. A commentary. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2006;15:1–11
  69. Robertson MM. Tourette Syndrome and affective disorders: an update. J Psychosom Res. 2006;61:349–358
  70. Carter AS, O'Donnell DA, Schultz RT, Scahill L, Leckman JF, Pauls DL. Social and emotional adjustment in children affected with Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome: associations with ADHD and family functioning. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2000;41:215–223
  71. Suhodolsky DG, Scahill L, Zhang H, et al. Disruptive behavior in children with Tourette's syndrome: association with ADHD comorbidity, tic severity, and functional impairment. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2003;42:98–105
  72. Rizzo R, Curatolo P, Gulisano M, Virzi M, Arpino C, Robertson MM. Disentangling the effects of Tourette syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder on cognitive function and behavioral phenotypes. Brain Dev. 2007;29:413–420
  73. Zhu Y, Leung KM, Liu PZ, Zhou M, Su LY. Cormorbid behavioural problems in Tourette's syndrome are positively correlated with the severity of tic symptoms. Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2006;40:67–73
  74. Woods DW, Piacentini J, Himle MB, Chang S. Premonitory Urge for Tics Scale (PUTS): initial psychometric results and examination of the premonitory urge phenomenon in youths with Tic disorders. J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2005;26:397–403
  75. Hoekstra PJ, Steenhuis MP, Kallenberg CG, Minderaa RB. Association of small life events with self reports of tics severity in paediatric and adult tic disorder patients: a prospective longitudinal study. J Clin Psychiatry. 2004;65:426–431
  76. Dooley JM, Stokes A, Gordon KE. Pseudo-tics in Tourette syndrome. J Child Neurol. 1994;9:50–51
  77. Rosenberg LA, Harris JC, Singer HS. Relationship of the child behavior checklist to an independent measure of psychopathology. Psychol Rep. 1984;54:427–430
  78. Termine C, Balottin U, Rossi G, et al. Psychopathology in children and adolescents with Tourette's syndrome: a controlled study. Brain Dev. 2006;28:69–75
  79. Georges Gilles de la Tourette G. Etude sur une affection nerveuse caracterisee par de l'incoordination motrice accompangnee d'echolalie et de coprolalie. Arch Neurol. 1885;9:158–200
  80. Alsobrook JP, Pauls DL. A factor analysis of tic symptoms in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome. Am J Psychiatry. 2002;159:291–296
  81. Eapen V, Fox-Hiley P, Banerjee S, Robertson MM. Clinical features and associated psychopathology in a Tourette Syndrome cohort. Acta Neurol Scand. 2004;109:255–260
  82. Storch EA, Murphy TK, Geffken GR, Soto O, Sajid M, Allen P, et al. REF NB Child Psychiatry. Hum Dev. 2004;35:107–120
  83. Mathews CA, Jang KL, Herrera LD, Lowe TL, Budman CL, Erenbergg G, et al. Tic symptom profiles in subjects with Tourette Syndrome from two genetically isolated populations. Biol Psychiatry. 2007;61:292–300
  84. Robertson MM, Cavanna AE. The Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome: a principal component factor analytic study of a large pedigree. Psychiatr Genet. 2007;17:143–152
  85. Robertson MM, Althoff RR, Hafez A, Pauls DL. A principal components analysis of a large cohort of patients with Gilles de la Tourette syndrome. Br J Psychiatry. 2008;[in press]
  86. Packer LE. Social and educational resources for patients with Tourette syndrome. (review) Neurol Clin. 1987;15:457–473
  87. Channon S, Crawford S, Vakili K, Robertsom MM. Real-life-type problem solving in Tourette syndrome. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology. 2003;16:3–14
  88. Channon S, Gunning A, Frankl J, Robertson MM. Tourette's syndrome (TS): cognitive performance in adults with uncomplicated TS. Neuropsychology. 2006;20:58–65
  89. Marsh R, Alexander GM, Packard MG, Zhu H, Wingard JC, Quackenbush G, et al. Habit learning in Tourette syndrome: a translational neuroscience approach to a developmental psychopathology. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2004;61:1259–1268
  90. Peterson BS, Thomas P, Kane MJ, Scahill L, Zhang H, Bronen R, et al. Basal ganglia volumes in patients with Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2003;60:415–424
  91. Peterson BS, Pine DS, Cohen P, Brook JS. Prospective, longitudinal study of tic, obsessive-compulsive, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders in an epidemiological sample. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2001;40:685–695
  92. Martino D, Defazio G, Church AJ, Dale RC, Giovannoni G, Robertson MM, et al. Antineuronal antibodies and phenotype analysis in Tourette's syndrome. Mov Disord. 2007;22:1424–1429
  93. Hyde TM, Aaronson BA, Randolph C, Rickler KC, Weinberger DR. Relationship of birth weight to the phenotypic expression of Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome in monozygotic twins. Neurology. 1992;42(3 Pt 1):652–658
  94. Traverse L. Prevalence of Tourette syndrome in a mainstream school population. Dev Med Child Neurol. 1998;40:847–848
  95. Mason A, Banerjee S, Eapen V, Zeitlinh , Robertson MM. The prevalence of Tourette syndrome in a mainstream school population. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology. 1998;40:292–296
  96. Atladottir HO, Parner ET, Schendel D et al. Time trends in reported diagnoses of childhood neuropsychiatric disorders: a Danish cohort study. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 161 (2): 193–8
  97. Freeman RD; Tourette Syndrome International Database Consortium. Tic Disorders and ADHD: answers from a world-wide clinical dataset on Tourette Syndrome. Eur Childd Adolesc Psychiatry; Suppl 1: 15–23
  98. Rickards H. An international perspective on Tourette Syndrome. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2001;43:428
  99. Murray TJ. Dr. Samuel Johnson's movement disorder. British Medical Journal. 1979;1:1610–1614
  100. Lagerkvist B. Peter the Great and Tourette Syndrome. Impulsive, violent sovereign who drank a lot of alcohol to control his tics. Lakartidningen. 2005;102:1440–1443
  101. Hurst MJ, Hurst DL. Tolstoy's description of Tourette syndrome in Anna Karenina. Journal of Child Neurology. 1994;94:366–367
  102. Wells JC. The thrifty phenotype hypothesis: thrifty offspring or thrifty mother?. J Theor Biol. 2003;22:143–161
  103. Wells JC. The thrifty phenotype as an adaptive maternal effect. Biol Rev Camb Phil Soc. 2007;82:143–172
  104. Akiskal KK, Akiskal HS. The theoretical underpinnings of affective temperaments: implications for evolutionary foundations of bipolar disorder. J Affect Disord. 2005;85:231–239
  105. Astrup A. Healthy lifestyles in Europe: prevention of obesity and Type II diabetes by diet and physical activity. Public Health Nutr. 2001;4(2B):499–515
  106. Kurlan R, Eapen V, Stern J, McDermott MP, Robertson MM. Bilineal transmission in Tourette's Syndrome families. Neurology. 1994;44:2336–2342
  107. Codner E, Soto N, Lopez P, et al. Diagnostic criteria for polycystic ovary syndrome and ovarian morphology in women with Type 1 diabetes mellitus. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2006;91:2250–2256
  108. George PM, Valabhji J, Dawood M, Henry JA. Screening for Type 2 diabetes in the accident and emergency department. Diabet Med. 2005;22:1766–1769
  109. Wood-Kaczmar A, Gandhi S, Wood NW. Understanding the molecular causes of Parkinson's disease. Trends Mol Med. 2006;12:521–528
  110. Leutenegger AL, Salih MA, Ibanez P, Mukhtar MM, Lesage S, Arabi A, et al. Juvenile-onset Parkinsonism as a result of the first mutation in the adenosine triphosphate orientation domain of PINK1. Arch Neurol. 2006;63:1257–1261
  111. Wang F, Wang F, Feng X, Ma J, Zou H, Chan P. A common A340T variant in PINK1 gene associated with late-onset Parkinson's disease in Chinese. Neurosci Lett. 2006 20;410:121–125
  112. Weder NZ, Azia R, Williams K, Tarpi RR. Frontotemporal dementias: a review. Arch Gen Psych. 2007;6:15;(Pubmed)
  113. Hirtz D, Thurman DJ, Gwinn-Hardy K, et al. How common are the “common” neurologic disorders?. Neurology. 2007;68:326–337

PII: S0022-3999(08)00112-8

doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2008.03.007

Journal of Psychosomatic Research
Volume 65, Issue 5 , Pages 473-486 , November 2008