Research article
Quality of life in adults with Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome
1 CHU Clermont-Ferrand, Pôle de Psychiatrie, Service de Psychiatrie de l’adulte et psychologie médicale A, Hôpital Gabriel Montpied, Clermont-Ferrand, F-63003, France
2 CHU Clermont-Ferrand, Pôle de Psychiatrie, Service de Psychiatrie de l’adulte B, Hôpital Gabriel Montpied, Clermont-Ferrand, F-63003, France
3 CHU Clermont-Ferrand, Délégation à la Recherche Clinique et à l’Innovation, Hôpital Gabriel Montpied, Clermont-Ferrand, F-63003, France
4 CHU Clermont-Ferrand, Santé Publique, Clermont-Ferrand, France
5 Département de Neurologie, Pôle des Maladies du Système Nerveux, Groupe Hospitalier La Pitié-Salpêtrière, Centre de référence ‘Syndrome Gilles de la Tourette, Paris, F-75013, France
6 CHU Clermont-Ferrand, Neurologie, Hôpital Gabriel Montpied, Clermont-Ferrand, F-63003, France
7 Clermont Université, Université Clermont 1, UFR Médecine, EA 3845, Clermont-Ferrand, F-63001, France
BMC Psychiatry 2012, 12:109 doi:10.1186/1471-244X-12-109
Published: 13 August 2012Abstract
Background
Few studies have used standardized QOL instruments to assess the quality of life (QOL) in Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome (GTS) patients. This work investigates the QOL of adult GTS patients and examines the relationships between physical and psychological variables and QOL.
Methods
Epidemiological investigation by anonymous national postal survey of QOL of patients of the French Association of Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome (AFGTS) aged 16 years or older. The clinical and QOL measures were collected by four questionnaires: a sociodemographic and GTS-related symptoms questionnaire, the World Health Organization Quality Of Life questionnaire (WHOQOL-26), the Functional Status Questionnaire (FSQ), and a self-rating questionnaire on psychiatric symptoms (SCL-90), all validated in French. We used stepwise regression analysis to explicitly investigate the relationships between physical and psychological variables and QOL domains in GTS.
Results
Questionnaires were posted to 303 patients, of whom 167 (55%) completed and returned them. Our results, adjusted for age and gender, show that patients with GTS have a worse QOL than the general healthy population. In particular, the “Depression” psychological variable was a significant predictor of impairment in all WHOQOL-26 domains, psychological but also physical and social.
Conclusions
The present study demonstrates a strong relationship between QOL in GTS and psychiatric symptoms, in particular those of depression.
