Neuropsychological status of children with Tourette's syndrome with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

To determine the frequency of learning disabilities (LD) and describe the neuropsychological profile of children with Tourette's syndrome (TS) with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), we analyzed psychosocial, psychoeducational, and neuropsychological data from 65 children between the ages of 6 and 14 years selected from a larger study of LD. Three groups were formed: TS only, TS + ADHD, and TS +/- ADHD. The third group was composed of children whose ADHD status was not as strongly confirmed by the three different instruments used for ADHD diagnosis. From other (non-TS) research projects in the Center, a comparison group of 27 unaffected siblings who had no diagnosis of ADHD was formed. All children were unmedicated at the time of assessment and had the full set of data available for analysis. LDs were present in 23% of the total TS sample, but LD was not present in the TS-only group. All TS groups had scores at or below 1 SD from the mean on measures of choice reaction time, but the TS-only group was significantly poorer on a measure of executive function (letter word fluency). We discuss the implication of the finding in the TS-only group in terms of a slowing of linguistic productivity.