Risk Behaviors in Youth With and Without Tourette Syndrome

Specific health-risk behaviors are present in older adolescents and young adults wtih Tourette syndrome (TS), but little is known about health-risk behaviors in youth with TS.

We compared responses on the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBS) in youth with TS with those in a concurrent community control group. The YRBS evaluates risk behaviors most closely associated with morbidity and mortality in young people. Tic severity, presence of comorbid attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), measures of ADHD symptom severity, and whether or not the individual had been bullied in school were also compared between the groups.

Data from 52 youth with TS and 48 control youth were included. We did not detect any differences between control youth and youth with TS in the reporting of risky behaviors. Tic severity was not significantly associated with high-risk behavior. However, ADHD was significantly more common in youth with TS (P < 0.0002), and youth with TS who identified themselves as victims of bullying had significantly higher ADHD symptom severity scores (P = 0.04) compared with those who were not bullied.

Risk behaviors are not reliably or clinically different in youth with TS compared with control youth. ADHD severity, but not tic severity, was associated with being bullied in youth with TS.