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Little is known about the perceived impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown measures on young patients with tic disorders. Previous studies focused on clinician and parent ratings of tic severity, whereas the only international self-report data are available for adult populations. We present the first findings from a case–control study on children and adolescents with tics during lockdown in Italy.

We surveyed 49 patients aged 6–18 years and 245 matched controls with a newly developed questionnaire covering socio-demographic and clinical data, as well as lockdown-related changes to daily life activities.

About half (53.2%) of the Italian school-age patients who took part in our survey experienced changes in tic severity during lockdown. Perceived increases in tic severity (29.8%) were reported more often than decreases (23.4%). Analogous trends were reported for …