Contextual Triggers and Tic Severity Across Life Periods: A Retrospective Analysis in Adults with Tic Disorders

Kathryn E Barber; Qiang Ding; Flint M Espil; Douglas W Woods; Matthew W Specht; Shannon M Bennett; Jordan T Stiede; John T Walkup; Emily J Ricketts; Joseph F McGuire; Alan L Peterson; Scott N Compton; Sabine Wilhelm; Lawrence Scahill; John C Piacentini

doi:10.1007/s10578-024-01733-y

Contextual Triggers and Tic Severity Across Life Periods: A Retrospective Analysis in Adults with Tic Disorders

Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2024 Jul 8. doi: 10.1007/s10578-024-01733-y. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Kathryn E Barber¹, Qiang Ding², Flint M Espil³, Douglas W Woods^{4

5}, Matthew W Specht⁶, Shannon M Bennett⁷, Jordan T Stiede⁸, John T Walkup⁹, Emily J Ricketts¹⁰, Joseph F McGuire¹¹, Alan L Peterson¹², Scott N Compton¹³, Sabine Wilhelm¹⁴, Lawrence Scahill¹⁵, John C Piacentini¹⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA.
² Department of Psychological Medicine, Children's Hospital of Fudan University Shanghai, Shanghai, PR China.
³ Department of Psychiatry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
⁴ Department of Psychology, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA. douglas.woods@luc.edu.
⁵ Department of Psychology, Loyola University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. douglas.woods@luc.edu.
⁶ Connecticut OCD, Anxiety, and Tic Specialists, Greenwich, CT, USA.
⁷ Department of Psychology, Cornell University, New York, NY, USA.
⁸ Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
⁹ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Lurie Children's, Chicago, IL, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Neuroscience, UCLA Semel Institute, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
¹¹ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
¹² Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, University of Texas San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA.
¹³ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA.
¹⁴ Harvard University School of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
¹⁵ Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, UCLA Semel Institute, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

PMID: 38976153
DOI: 10.1007/s10578-024-01733-y

Abstract

In tic disorders (TD), tic expression varies across the lifespan and as a function of contextual factors. This study explored connections between tic expression and contextual triggers across life periods in 74 adults (M_age = 23.2) with TDs. The Tic History and Coping Strategies form assessed retrospective self-reports of contextual antecedents, consequences, and tic severity during four life periods (middle school; 9th/10th grade; 11th/12th grade; college/work) and past month. Tics reportedly worsened during and after school in school-aged years and worsened in the evening during college/work years. Stress and anxiety were reported to consistently trigger tics across time. The impact of activities, places, and emotions did not differ across life periods. Attention-based consequences, most prevalent during middle school, were more common than escape- or avoidance-related consequences across all periods. Findings illuminate how contextual factors may influence tics across life periods and underscore the consistent impact of tic-triggering emotions and attention-related consequences.

Keywords: Contextual factors; Developmental; Environment; Tic disorders; Tourette syndrome.

Abstract

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