Department of Human Neurosciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Sabelli 108, 00185, Rome, Italy.
Center for Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy.
Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2019 Apr;28(4):461-470. doi: 10.1007/s00787-018-1209-x. Epub 2018 Jul 28.
Tic disorders are neurodevelopmental disorders characterised by the presence of motor or phonic tics, or both. Patients with tic disorders commonly report premonitory urges of tics. Alexithymia is a psychological trait characterised by a difficulty in identifying and expressing one's own feelings and by an externally oriented thinking. We aimed to explore alexithymia in children with tic disorders and in their mothers. Global alexithymia scores of both children with tic disorders and of their mothers did not differ from those of the participants from the control group. In the tic disorder group, however, both children and their mothers showed a cognitive style characterised by operational thinking and a lack of imaginative abilities. The mothers of children with tic disorder reported significantly higher parental stress. Alexithymia was not predictive of tic severity but was predictive of the severity of the premonitory urges. The implications of these findings are discussed.
抽动障碍是一种神经发育障碍，其特征为存在运动性抽动或发声性抽动，或两者皆有。抽动障碍患者常报告有抽动的预感冲动。述情障碍是一种心理特征，表现为难以识别和表达自己的感受，以及具有外向型思维。我们旨在探索抽动障碍儿童及其母亲的述情障碍。抽动障碍儿童及其母亲的整体述情障碍评分与对照组参与者的评分无差异。然而，在抽动障碍组中，儿童及其母亲均表现出一种以操作性思维和缺乏想象力为特征的认知风格。抽动障碍儿童的母亲报告的父母压力显著更高。述情障碍不能预测抽动严重程度，但能预测预感冲动的严重程度。讨论了这些发现的意义。
