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Physical activity, sleep and neuropsychiatric symptom severity in children with tourette syndrome

Tamara Pringsheim1,2, Elaheh Nosratmirshekarlou3, Asif Doja4

  • 1Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Psychiatry, Pediatrics and Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada. tmprings@ucalgary.ca.

European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
|May 7, 2020
PubMed

Insights

Children with tic disorders who engaged in more physical activity experienced less severe tics and comorbid symptoms. Better subjective sleep quality correlated with higher symptom severity, highlighting activity and sleep

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric neurology
  • Sleep science
  • Behavioral science

Background:

  • Tic disorders are complex neurological conditions often accompanied by comorbidities.
  • Physical activity and sleep are crucial for overall child development and well-being.
  • Understanding the interplay between lifestyle factors and symptom severity is vital for effective management.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the associations between physical activity, sleep patterns, and symptom severity in children diagnosed with tic disorders.
  • To explore the relationship between objective and subjective measures of activity and sleep with tic severity and comorbid conditions.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized GeneActiv wrist-worn accelerometers for objective measurement of physical activity and sleep/wake parameters over seven days.
  • Administered questionnaires to assess subjective sleep quality, exercise habits, and the severity of tics, ADHD, OCD, anxiety, and depression.
  • Analyzed data from 110 children diagnosed with tic disorders.

Main Results:

  • Children with more severe tics exhibited higher rates of comorbid diagnoses, poorer subjective sleep, increased sedentary time, and reduced physical activity.
  • Significant negative correlations were found between physical activity levels (light, moderate, vigorous) and the severity of tics, OCD, anxiety, and depression.
  • No significant correlation was observed between objective sleep duration/efficiency and symptom severity; however, subjective sleep quality showed a strong positive correlation with ADHD severity.

Conclusions:

  • Physical activity demonstrates a small but significant inverse relationship with symptom severity in pediatric tic disorders.
  • Subjective sleep quality, unlike objective measures, is significantly associated with increased symptom severity, particularly for ADHD.
  • These findings suggest that promoting physical activity may be beneficial for managing tic disorder symptoms and associated comorbidities.

Keywords:
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorderPhysical activitySleepTourette syndrome

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