RESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: The primary aim was to assess both the type and degree of impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on child and family wellbeing in a cohort with neurodevelopmental disorders. DESIGN: This was a single time-point observational study utilizing a combination of surveys and standardized measures, which were administered to parents by researchers by telephone. SETTING: The Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatric Clinic of the Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Catania University, Italy. PARTICIPANTS: In total, 200 caregivers completed the questionnaires on behalf of themselves and their child. They were predominantly mothers (88.00%) and primary caregivers (93.50%), with a mean age of 42.84 years (sd = 7.13). PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOMES MEASURES: A questionnaire featured in a previous study was used to assess the impact of COVID-19 on general wellbeing, types of support, family health, home-based learning, and child behaviors. Children's diagnoses were recorded. Caregivers provided information about physical, mental, financial, and vocational wellbeing, and completed several standardised measures of mental health and well-being: the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale - K6; the General Anxiety Disorder Scale - GAD-2; and the WHO Well-being Scale - WHO-5. RESULTS: Overall, 58.50% of respondents agreed somewhat or strongly that their child's overall health and wellbeing had been impacted by the pandemic, while 47.74% felt that their own wellbeing as parents had been affected. Whilst home-based learning and disruption to services for children were noted as being significant, child wellbeing appeared to not be correlated with these but rather to restrictions, home isolation, and disruption to routine. CONCLUSION: Children with neurocognitive disorders and their families have been substantially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is expected that targeted resources and support services will be required in response to this increase in need.
RESUMEN
Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are two neurodevelopmental disorders with male predominance, frequently comorbid, that share clinical and behavioral features. The incidence of ASD in patients affected by GTS was reported to be between 2.9% and 22.8%. We hypothesized that higher ASD rates among children affected by GTS previously reported may be due to difficulty in discriminating GTS sub-phenotypes from ASD, and the higher scores in the restrictive and repetitive behaviors in particular may represent at least a "false comorbidity". We studied a large population of 720 children and adolescents affected by GTS (n = 400) and ASD (n = 320), recruited from a single center. Patients were all assessed with The Yale Global Tic Severity Rating Scale (YGTSS), The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), The Autism Diagnostic Interview Revised (ADI-R), The Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS), and The Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale for autism spectrum disorder (CY-BOCS ASD). Our results showed statistically significant differences in ADOS scores for social aspects between GTS with comorbid attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) sub-phenotypes and ASD. No differences were present when we compared GTS with comorbid ASD sub-phenotype to ASD, while repetitive and restrictive behavior scores in ASD did not present statistical differences in the comparison with GTS and comorbid OCD and ASD sub-phenotypes. We also showed that CY-BOCS ASD could be a useful instrument to correctly identify OCD from ASD symptoms.