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The Psychopathology of the Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome

A Phenomenological Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Mary M. Robertson*
Affiliation:
The TMiddlesex Hospital
Michael R. Trimble
Affiliation:
The National Hospitals for Nervous Diseases, and Raymond Way Senior Lecturer in Behavioural Neurology, The Institute of Neurology, London
A. J. Lees
Affiliation:
The National Hospitals for Nervous Diseases
*
Joint Academic Department of Psychiatry, The Middlesex Hospital, Mortimer Street, London WIN 8AA

Abstract

Ninety patients with the Gilles de la Tourette syndrome were studied. A high incidence of depression, hostility, and obsessionality was found. Depression was not related to administered medication, while aggression, hostility, and obsessionality were significantly associated with some important features of the syndrome, namely copro- and echo-phenomena and a family history of tics or the Gilles de la Tourette syndrome. Links between psychopathology and neurological and electroencephalographic abnormalities were minimal.

Type
Annotation
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1988 

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