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Updated: Jun 21, 2025
Tactile Semiautomatic Passive-Finger Angle Stimulator TSPAS
Published on: July 30, 2020
Sensory Phenomenon Assessment Scale: a new tool for assessment of tic-associated sensations
Xianbin Wang1, Yanlin Li1,2, Liping Yu1
1Department of Psychiatry, Beijing Children's Hospital, Capital Medical University, National Center for Children Healthy, Beijing, China.
Background:
Sensory symptoms linked to tic disorder (TD) are challenging to quantify via self- or parent-reported measures. The current study aimed to develop a novel observer-rated semi-structured interview, namely, the Sensory Phenomenon Assessment Scale (SPAS), to aid clinical evaluation on symptoms of TD among children.
Methods:
To test its psychometric properties, tic, premonitory urge (PU), and obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS) were also assessed in 223 children via the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS), the Premonitory Urge for Tic Scale (PUTS), and the Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS). Factor analysis and internal consistency test were carried out using data from TD-diagnosed individuals.
Results:
Good internal consistency and test-retest reliability were observed. Criterion validity was established by significant correlations between the PUTS, the YGTSS, the CY-BOCS, and scores of the SPAS. Factor analyses supported a single-factor model of the SPAS, in which the five items each showed a factor loading above 0.6.
Conclusion:
This study demonstrated that the SPAS is reliable and valid and, thus, can serve as a good and concise measure of clinical symptoms among children and adolescents with TD.
