Creative thinking in Tourette’s syndrome: A comparative study of patients and healthy controls

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Tourette’s syndrome is a neurological disorder characterized by tics, that may interfere with patients’ everyday life. Research suggested that creative thinking (namely, divergent and convergent thinking) could help patients cope with their symptoms, and therefore it can be a resource in non-pharmacological interventions. The present study aimed at investigating (i) possible differences in creative thinking between Tourette’s syndrome patients and healthy controls and (ii) whether creative thinking can support patients in coping with their symptomatology.

Methods: A group of 25 Tourette’s syndrome patients and 25 matched healthy controls underwent an assessment of creative thinking, fluid intelligence, and depressive symptoms. Creative thinking was compared between patients and healthy controls after controlling for fluid intelligence and depressive symptoms. Moreover, the moderating role of divergent and convergent thinking on the subjective impact of tics was tested in a group of 30 patients.

Results: Tourette’s syndrome patients outperformed healthy controls in convergent thinking. Moreover, divergent thinking was found as a significant moderator of the relationship between tics severity and the subjective impact in Tourette’s syndrome patients.

Conclusions: Findings highlighted the specific impact of convergent and divergent thinking on Tourette’s syndrome patients. Considering the supportive role of creative thinking in Tourette’s syndrome, our results confirm that higher levels of divergent thinking may reduce the tic-related discomfort. These findings suggest the potential positive implications of creative thinking in non-pharmacological interventions for Tourette’s syndrome.

KEYWORDS:

• Tourette’s syndrome
• tics
• dopamine
• cognition
• creativity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/13803395.2023.2251644

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.