CLINICAL FEATURES OF VOCAL TICS OF TOURETTE SYNDROME

Trần Nguyễn Ngọc1,2, Dương Minh Tâm1,2,
1 Hanoi Medical University
2 National Mental Health Institute, Bach Mai Hospital

Main Article Content

Abstract

Study aims to describe clinical  features of vocal tics in children with Tourette syndrome. This is a cross-sectional study enrolled 77 children under 18 years olds, in the first diagnostic of Tourette syndrome (F95.2) at the outpatient  clinic, Department of Psychiatry, National Children's Hospital. Results: In majority of cases, onset of vocal tics was before the age of 7,  (62.3%). There is only 1,3% of patients have first symptoms after the age of 11. Most children were given diagnosis of Tourette syndrome  between 8 and 11 years old (55.8%). There are 11 simple vocal  tics  were observed. The most common was throat clearing (66.2%), followed by snorting (18.2%) and spitting 15.6%. In our study, only 3 complex vocal tics  occured in children with Tourette syndrome, including profanity (2.6%) and stuttering (2.6%) and unclear pronunciation (1.3%). Conclusion: Recognizing vocal tics are very important in early diagnosis of Tourette syndrome, which helps patients treated appropriately.

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References

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