Associations Between Some Related Factors and Tic Severity in Vietnamese Children with Tourette’s Syndrome

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the factors associated with tic severity in Vietnamese children with Tourette syndrome (TS). Methods: A total of 77 children with TS who underwent outpatient care at the Psychiatric Clinic, Vietnam National Children’s Hospital, were enrolled in this study. The International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) was employed to diagnose TS. The severity of tic symptoms was evaluated using the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS). The effect of associated factors on YGTSS was evaluated using generalized multiple linear regression. Results: In total, the motor tic score had a positive association with parents’ history of psychiatric disorders ( P value = .046) and a negative association with age at tic-onset ( P value = .048). In the analysis for age ≤10, the motor tic score had a positive correlation with maternal pregnancy complications ( P value = .049). Birth trauma during labor had a positive association with both the motor tic score and phonics score ( P value = .024 and .028, respectively). In the analysis for age >10, parent’s history, maternal pregnancy complications, and maternal smoking during pregnancy were positive correlations with motor tic scores ( P value = .018, .026, and .014, respectively). Maternal smoking during pregnancy had positive correlations with overall impairment and global severity scores ( P value = .040 and .012, respectively). Maternal age had negative correlations with phonic tic, overall impairment, and global severity scores ( P value = .046, .043, and .032, respectively). Conclusions: This study suggested that a parent’s history of psychiatric disorders, maternal pregnancy complications, and maternal smoking during pregnancy were associated with increased scores in the severity of tic symptoms in TS patients in Vietnam.