TY - JOUR
T1 - Major and minor life events, personality and psychopathology in children with tourette syndrome
AU - Horesh, Netta
AU - Shmuel-Baruch, Sharona
AU - Farbstein, Dan
AU - Ruhrman, Daphna
AU - Milshtein, Noa Ben Aroya
AU - Fennig, Silvana
AU - Apter, Alan
AU - Steinberg, Tamar
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017
PY - 2018/2
Y1 - 2018/2
N2 - Environmental, psychological, and biological interactions underlie many psychopathologies. Tourette's Syndrome (TS) has an obvious biological substrate but environmental factors and personality play substantial roles in its expression. We aimed to study the interrelationships between stressful life events, personality traits, tics, and comorbid disorders in children with TS. To this end, 132 children with TS and 49 healthy controls were recruited for the study. Major life events in the 12-months prior to testing and minor life events in the month prior to testing were retrospectively assessed using the Life Experiences Survey (LES) and the Brief Adolescent Life Events Scale (BALES), respectively. Personality was assessed with the Junior Temperament and Character Inventory (JTCI). Tics, obsessive compulsive symptoms, attention deficit and hyperactivity symptoms, anxiety, depression and aggression were assessed by self-report questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. We found that major life events correlated with the severity of tics expression and complexity, and comorbid psychopathology. Minor life events correlated with more severe symptomatology. High levels of harm avoidance were related to more obsessions, anxiety, and depression whereas high levels of self-directedness were protective. To conclude, TS expression in childhood should be understood as the result of an interaction between biological, personality and environmental factors.
AB - Environmental, psychological, and biological interactions underlie many psychopathologies. Tourette's Syndrome (TS) has an obvious biological substrate but environmental factors and personality play substantial roles in its expression. We aimed to study the interrelationships between stressful life events, personality traits, tics, and comorbid disorders in children with TS. To this end, 132 children with TS and 49 healthy controls were recruited for the study. Major life events in the 12-months prior to testing and minor life events in the month prior to testing were retrospectively assessed using the Life Experiences Survey (LES) and the Brief Adolescent Life Events Scale (BALES), respectively. Personality was assessed with the Junior Temperament and Character Inventory (JTCI). Tics, obsessive compulsive symptoms, attention deficit and hyperactivity symptoms, anxiety, depression and aggression were assessed by self-report questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. We found that major life events correlated with the severity of tics expression and complexity, and comorbid psychopathology. Minor life events correlated with more severe symptomatology. High levels of harm avoidance were related to more obsessions, anxiety, and depression whereas high levels of self-directedness were protective. To conclude, TS expression in childhood should be understood as the result of an interaction between biological, personality and environmental factors.
KW - Life events
KW - Personality
KW - Tourette syndrome
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85034017735&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.psychres.2017.11.016
DO - 10.1016/j.psychres.2017.11.016
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C2 - 29153958
AN - SCOPUS:85034017735
SN - 0165-1781
VL - 260
SP - 1
EP - 9
JO - Psychiatry Research
JF - Psychiatry Research
ER -