Mood, anxiety disorders common in Tourette patients, emerge at a young age
t has long been known that TS, which emerges in childhood and is characterized by troublesome motor and vocal tics, is often accompanied by other disorders, especially attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In many patients these "comorbid" conditions cause more distress and disability for patients than TS tics themselves. But the size and rigor of the new study, conducted by an international group of researchers known as the Tourette Syndrome Association International Consortium for Genetics (TSAICG) and published in the February 11, 2015 online edition of JAMA Psychiatry, provides the most comprehensive and reliable picture of TS comorbidities to date, said Carol A. Mathews, MD, professor of psychiatry at UCSF and co-senior author of the new report. "This is the biggest data set of its kind that I know of," Mathews said. "We've interviewed thousands of people and collected a huge wealth of clinical d...