On being your own worst enemy: An investigation of socially inappropriate symptoms in Tourette syndrome

Non-obscene socially inappropriate symptoms (NOSIS) in Tourette syndrome (TS) include urges to make insulting remarks about a person's physical characteristics (e.g. "big nose") and other socially disruptive behaviors (e.g. shouting "bomb" at an airport). We aimed to explore the characteristics of NOSIS in TS, and determine whether individuals who experienced NOSIS reported differences to those who did not in terms of quality of life (QoL) and common clinical symptoms. Finally we aimed to identify significant predictors of the presence of NOSIS. Patients were sixty patients with TS from a specialist outpatient clinic. They completed clinical measures assessing NOSIS, QoL, tic severity, premonitory urges for tics, depression, anxiety, obsessions and compulsions, attention problems, coprophenomena and conduct problems. Two-thirds of our sample admitted experiencing urges to make socially inappropriate remarks and/or carry out socially inappropriate actions. However, not all urges led to actions. Obsessions, attention problems, coprolalia and conduct problems were all significantly more common in patients with NOSIS than those without. Moreover, the presence of NOSIS was associated with significantly poorer QoL, and higher scores on measures of tic severity, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, attention problems and premonitory urges. However, only the presence of coprolalia and severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms and premonitory urges were significant predictors of the presence of NOSIS. Our findings may imply that elevated self-consciousness and obsessionality could comprise risk factors for the development of NOSIS. As NOSIS exert a specific detrimental impact on QoL, these symptoms should be employed as a marker of therapeutic efficacy.