Knowledge and Awareness of Tourette’s Syndrome among the General Population in Saudi Arabia

Background: Tourette’s syndrome (TS) is one of the most complicated disorders in case history and its discovery. It is a childhood-onset regulated neurobehavioral disorder characterized by multiple motor tics plus one or more phonic vocalizations tics. The management of TS requires appropriate education and support.

The Aim: The present study built the interest to assess the knowledge and awareness of definition, causes, symptoms, diagnosis, complication, and treatment of Tourette’s syndrome (TS) in different regions in Saudi society and try to improve the false thoughts about this disease.

Material: A cross-sectional survey was distributed throughout the regions in Saudi Arabia, by the help of 27 data collectors, between October 2020 to January 2021. An online questionnaire was designed. It included informed consent and 11 questions about the sociodemographic data and questions regarding signs, symptoms, complications, and management about TS. It was distributed via various social media apps.

Methods: SPSS for Windows v22.0 IBM Inc..SPSS for windows Rel 15.0 2006 Chicago Inc.

Results: A total of 5526 adult participated in the present study. 70.7% where females and 29.3% males. More than half of them 75.3% in age group 20-29 in about 81.6% have university degree or above. 63.5% of the respondents heard about TS and 58% correctly defend the syndrome as disorder involve uncontrolled repetitive movement or unwanted sounds.

Conclusion: The present study found that majority of the respondents were aware of Tourette’s Syndrome in KSA, but they had poor knowledge about the Tourette’s Syndrome.