This doctoral dissertation investigated tic disorders (including transient tics, chronic tics, and Tourette\u2019s syndrome) in adolescents aged 12\u201315 years in Warsaw schools. The main goals were to estimate how common tic disorders are in this population, describe their clinical and demographic characteristics, and evaluate the usefulness of a simple school-based screening questionnaire and a clinical severity scale (Yale Global Tic Severity Scale, YGTSS) adapted into Polish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The study used a two-stage design: first, parents and teachers of nearly 3,000 students completed a short screening questionnaire about tic-like behaviors; second, children flagged by this screening (plus a control group) underwent detailed clinical assessment. The results showed that tic-related symptoms were common, with a minimum prevalence of about 6.6%. Most cases were mild and often involved simple motor tics such as eye blinking or facial movements. Tourette\u2019s syndrome was relatively rare (about 0.6%), and we did not identify significant demographic or environmental risk factors. Boys were affected more often than girls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The study also validated the Polish version of the YGTSS, finding it to have acceptable reliability for assessing tic severity. However, the simple three-question screening tool had high sensitivity but low specificity, meaning it identified many potential disorders that were not confirmed on clinical evaluation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Overall, the dissertation concludes that tic disorders are relatively frequent but usually mild in adolescents, likely forming a spectrum rather than sharply distinct conditions, and that while simple screening tools are useful for detecting possible disorders in schools, they generate many false positives and require careful clinical follow-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I defended this dissertation in 2003 at the Warsaw Medical University, following five years of work\u2014starting with coordinating a field study alongside eight medical students, then building the database, entering and analyzing the data, consulting a statistician, and reviewing dozens of papers. I started this work in 1996, when I was still in 5th year of medical school, and finished when I was already working in the institute of public health in Warsaw.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PhD in Movement Disorders Epidemiology defended at the Warsaw Medical University<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"class_list":["post-561","prace-dyplomowe","type-prace-dyplomowe","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/prace-dyplomowe\/561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/prace-dyplomowe"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/prace-dyplomowe"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/work\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}