The familial association of tourette's disorder and ADHD: The impact of OCD symptoms

Abstract

Objective Tourette’s disorder (TD) frequently co-occurs with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). While the relationship between TD and OCD suggests that they share etiological factors, the exact relationship between TD and ADHD is less clear. The goal of the current analyses was to understand better the familial relationship between DSM-IV ADHD and TD. Method Direct interview diagnostic data from a case-control study of 692 relatives of 75 comorbid TD and ADHD (TD+ADHD), 74 TD without ADHD (TD Only), 41 ADHD without TD (ADHD Only) and 49 control probands were analyzed. Hierarchical loglinear modeling was used to explore association patterns between TD, ADHD, and OCD or sub-clinical OCD (OCD/OCDsub) diagnoses among the 190 affected probands and their 538 relatives. Results The increased risk of comorbid ADHD and TD among relatives of TD and/or ADHD probands is associated with the presence of an OCD/OCDsub diagnosis in the proband (OR = 7.8; p< .0001). Conclusions The presence of OCD or OCDsub diagnosis in a proband was associated with a significantly increased risk of comorbid TD+ADHD in his/her relatives. The finding of an association between TD, ADHD and a proband OCD/OCDsub diagnosis was unexpected. The current results suggest that TD, ADHD, and OCD symptoms have overlapping neurobiology when occurring in families of TD and/or ADHD probands.

Multidisciplinary Clinic Dedicated to Treating Youth with Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome: Presenting Characteristics of the First 47 Consecutive Patients

“…For example, non-PANS pediatric OCD is often associated with tics, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (Peterson et al 2001;O'Rourke et al 2011;Gomes de Alvarenga et al 2012;Selles et al 2014). Taken out of the PANS context, many of our patients could otherwise be diagnosed with multiple psychiatric disorders.…”

The Gilles De La Tourette syndrome: the current status

“…These results are all exciting, but emphasise the need for studies on large numbers of cases, be they using rare variants, sib-pair analysis, extended pedigrees or large cohorts and at least two international collaborative efforts are, to date, in place. Also, until relatively recently, it was generally accepted that GTS and OCB/OCD were genetically related, but that GTS and ADHD were not related apart from in a distinct subgroup of GTS patients, but a recent study65 has suggested that GTS and ADHD may well be genetically related, despite some of the earlier research. A potentially exciting finding is the family in which a variety of phenotypes (boy with autism and tics, boy with GTS and ADHD) with the deletion of neuroligin4 (NLGN4) and a mother (who was a carrier) with learning difficulties, anxiety, depression were reported by Lawson-Yuen et al 2008 66.…”

The inheritance of Tourette Disorder: A review

“…Since children with comorbid conditions exhibit a much higher psychopathological burden than those with an isolated disorder 6 , it is critical to understand the etiology of these conditions and, in particular, to examine whether they share common genetic underpinnings. Results from a recent family study of TD, OCD, and ADHD support the hypothesis that these three conditions have some shared etiology 7 .…”