Neuropsychological Functioning Among Children With Tourret's Disorder and ADHD

Neuropsychological Functioning, Symptomatology, and Social Adjustment Among Children With Tourret's Disorder, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, and Comorbid Conditions.

Tourette's disorder (TD) is a childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorder, manifesting motor and vocal tics with increased likelihood of comorbid with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other psychiatric disorders. Literature documents the comorbid condition with ADHD predicts an increased functional deficit among individuals with ADHD. The information about neuropsychological functioning among individuals with TD adn/or ADHD is little in Asian population. This study aims to validate the diagnoses of TD, ADHD, and TD comorbid ADHD by symptomatology, neuropsychological measures, and social adjustment. This is a case-control study with a sample of 30 subjects with TD, 60 with ADHD, 30 with TD+ADHD, and 60 controls aged from 6 to 18. All subjects will receive comprehensive assessment including standard psychiatric diagnostic interviews using (K-SADS-E), behavioral assessments (SNAP-IV, CPRS:R-S, CTRS:R-S, CBCL, YBOCS, YGTSS), social adjustment (SAICA, GCAS), parenting (PBI, APGAR) and neuropsychological assessment (CPT, CANTAB, WISC-III). We anticipate that this study will provide the primitive data to validate the TD and ADHD using neuropsychological and clinical measures.

Inclusion Criteria:

• patients aged 8-16 without the diagnosis of ADHD, and/or Tourette's disorder
• IQ > 80
• both children/adolescents and their parents consent to participate and have the ability to complete self-administered measures in this study

Exclusion Criteria:

• diagnosis of psychotic disorders, bipolar affective disorders, pervasive developmental disorder, seizure, or major physical disorders.
• in addition, control subjects will be excluded from the control group if have a history of the following condition as defined by DSM-IV: ADHD, ODD, or CD in addition to the above exclusion criteria.