Thinking styles in childhood anxiety, mood and tic disorders

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Identifying common cognitive features in childhood anxiety, mood and tic disorders: a cross-sectional study

  • IRAS ID

    182059

  • Contact name

    Victoria Pile

  • Contact email

    victoria.pile@kcl.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    King's College London

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    2 years, 0 months, 1 days

  • Research summary

    Anxiety and mood-related mental health problems are common and impairing in young people with Tourette syndrome and chronic tic disorders (TS/CTDs), yet the evidence base for treatment is extremely limited. Biases in thinking styles in young people with emotional difficulties have been well established and have led to the development of effective treatments. Before these treatments can be applied to young people with TS/CTDs, it is important to investigate whether the same biases exist in young people with TS/CTDs and whether these are valid treatment goals for young people and their families.

    The main aim of this research is to gain insight, through a combination of questionnaire measures and computerised tasks, into the role of emotional difficulties and thinking styles in children and adolescents with TS/CTDs. This will include empirical measurement of information-processing biases in children and adolescents with TS/CTDs and comparing these to children and young people without TS/CTDs (ethical approval from King's College London to recruit young people without a diagnosis of TS/CTDs from schools has already been granted on 19.05.15, reference HR14/150481). This would lay the groundwork to develop psychological interventions to manage symptoms of anxiety and mood-related mental health problems for children and adolescents with TS/CTDs.

    We propose to recruit 30 young people and their families from the Tics and Neuro-Developmental Movements (TANDeM) service in St Thomas' hospital to complete the research.

  • REC name

    South Central - Oxford C Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    15/SC/0501

  • Date of REC Opinion

    14 Aug 2015

  • REC opinion

    Favourable Opinion