Anxiety, Panic Disorders Can Be Disabling with Tourette’s Syndrome

Adults with Tourette’s syndrome suffer from vocal and physical tics that are uncontrollable and may be embarrassing. Tourette’s itself, however, is not necessarily disabling.

A new study of adults with Tourette’s syndrome has identified anxiety and panic disorders as the most frequent cause of disability among people who suffer from the syndrome. The results of the study were presented at the 14th International Congress on Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders in Buenos Aires this week by Dr. David Lichter, neurologist at the University of Buffalo’s School of Medicine.

The symptoms of Tourette’s include uncontrollable vocal and physical tics, including whistling, throat clearing, and undesired speech, repetitive motions such as blinking or kicking, and muscle spasms. For many children diagnosed with Tourette’s, the symptoms taper off or even disappear during the teenage years. For some adults, however, tics persist. The current study looked only at adult Tourette’s victims, aged between 20 and 80.

Dr. Lichter noted that in the past, clinicians have assumed that depression was the major risk for adult patients with Tourette’s syndrome, but in the present study, depression was not highly significant. Of the patients studied, 32% were diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder, with an additional 30% displaying some symptoms of OCD. Slightly fewer–29 percent–had anxiety or panic disorders and 21% more had some symptoms of anxiety or panic.  Only 16% were diagnosed with depression.

Other conditions associated with Tourette’s in this study include childhood history of ADHD or adult diagnosis of ADD, substance abuse, rage attacks or self-injury, and psychosis. Anxiety and panic disorders were most often associated with social or occupational disabilities in reference to Tourette’s syndrome.

Social workers and doctors assisting people with Tourette’s syndrome should pay attention to these co-existing conditions to help them understand which patients are most likely to experience disability in various aspects of life based on their conditions.

Lichter and his co-author, neurologist Sarah Finnegan, say that the study will allow for earlier and more targeted interventions to assist patients in maintaining mental health and quality of life in spite of Tourette’s.