Tic disorders and premonitory urges: validation of the Spanish-language version of the Premonitory Urge for Tics Scale in children and adolescents.

Neurologia (Engl Ed)

Servicio de Psiquiatría y Psicología Clínica Infantil y Juvenil, Instituto de Neurociencias, Hospital Clínic Universitari, Barcelona, España; Institut d'Investigacions Biomediques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, España.

Published: December 2020

Introduction: Most people with persistent tics report an unpleasant sensation (premonitory urge) before the tic. In recent years, interest in these sensory phenomena has increased due to their important role in behavioural therapy. However, instruments for assessing these sensations remain scarce. Among the available instruments, the Premonitory Urge for Tics Scale (PUTS) is the most widely used.

Methods: We examined the psychometric properties and factor structure of the Spanish-language version of the PUTS in a sample of 72 children and adolescents with Tourette syndrome or persistent tic disorders. We analysed data from the total sample and by age group (children up to 10 years old and children/adolescents over 10).

Results: The PUTS presented good internal consistency and moderate correlations between items on the scale (except for item one). Divergent validity was good, test-retest reliability was adequate, and a bifactorial structure was identified (one dimension related to mental phenomena reported in obsessive-compulsive disorder, and another related to the quality and frequency of premonitory urges). These results were replicated in both age groups, with lower divergent validity and test-retest reliability in the younger group.

Conclusions: The Spanish-language version of the PUTS is a valid, reliable tool for assessing premonitory urges in both children and adolescents, especially after the age of 10.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nrl.2020.09.006DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

premonitory urges
12
spanish-language version
12
premonitory urge
12
children adolescents
12
tic disorders
8
urge tics
8
tics scale
8
version puts
8
divergent validity
8
test-retest reliability
8

Similar Publications

Background: Tourette syndrome (TS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by motor and phonic tics. It is a condition that affects between 0.3% and 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Functional brain networks associated with the urge for action: Implications for pathological urge.

Neurosci Biobehav Rev

August 2024

Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development and School of Psychology, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC 3220,  Australia; Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, VIC 3052, Australia.

Article Synopsis
  • Researchers studied Tourette syndrome (TS) to understand the feelings that happen before tics, which are movements or sounds people with TS make.
  • They looked at how different brain areas light up when healthy people have common urges, like needing to cough or blink.
  • They found that some brain areas involved in these everyday urges are also similar to the ones activated in people with TS, which may help us understand why tics happen.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Gamification of behavioral intervention for tic disorders (TDs) potentially enhances compliance and offers key clinical advantages. By delivering immediate positive feedback upon tic-suppression, games may counteract negative reinforcement, which presumably contribute to tic consolidation by relieving uncomfortable premonitory urges.

Objectives: We developed a gamified protocol (XTics), which leverages this potential by combining gamified tic-triggering with immediate feedback, and evaluated its clinical value in enhancing tic suppression.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The Premonitory Urge for Tics Scale (PUTS) is a common self-report measure of premonitory urges for patients with tic disorders. This study aims to evaluate the Chinese version of the PUTS (PUTS-C) and to explore its association with psychiatric symptoms in Chinese children diagnosed with tic disorders.

Methods: The psychometric evaluation involved 204 outpatients with tic disorders, aged 7-16 years, who were divided into two age groups: (7-10 years, n = 103; 11-16 years, n = 95).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - Tic disorders involve involuntary motor or vocal tics and are believed to be linked to reducing unpleasant urges through negative reinforcement, which is the basis for therapies like habit reversal training (HRT) and exposure and response prevention (ERP).
  • - The study used advanced statistical models to analyze the relationship between urges and tics in eleven adults, finding significant variability in how individuals experienced this connection during free tics versus tic suppression.
  • - Results indicated that tic suppression did not effectively decrease urges for most participants, challenging existing notions in the biobehavioral model of tics and suggesting a need for further exploration of the urge-tic dynamics over time.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!